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A low friction oil developed formotorsport applications couldprovide a cost-effective reduction inthe CO2 emissions of road cars.Developed entirely in house by UKspecialist oil developer and producer,Millers Oils, Nanodrive is a family offully synthetic lubricants containingnanoparticles. Independent back-to-back tests on a Porsche 911 raceengine showed an immediate powergain of over five percent by replacinga top conventional synthetic lubricantwith Nanodrive oil of the sameviscosity.

“In motorsport, lower friction meansquicker lap times and reduced wearmeans fewer costly engine rebuilds,” saidMartyn Mann, Millers Oils technicaldirector. “In the road car industry, thereis mounting pressure to reduce vehiclefuel consumption and CO2 emissions, soengineers are continually trying toimprove engine efficiency throughdevelopments such as smaller bearingsand low friction rings and cylinder liners.Nanodrive contributes to each of theserequirements without needing anydesign modifications or changes to

manufacturing. It can be implemented immediately and compared with engine modificationsgiving the same benefit, it is very lowcost.”

Engine friction arises from two primarysources: viscous losses and boundaryfriction. “Viscous losses occur wherever alubricant flows, due to shearing betweenadjacent layers of the oil,” explainedMann. “To reduce the effect, enginemanufacturers specify ever thinnergrades of lubricant. Replacing a 5w30multigrade oil with a 0w20 grade hasbeen estimated to give a directimprovement of two percent in fuelconsumption.”

But, reducing viscous losses by usingthinner oils risks increasing boundaryfriction and reducing engine life throughincreased wear, said Mann: “Boundaryfriction occurs where the oil films are sothin that opposing metal surfaces beginto interact with each other,” hecontinued. “These conditions existbetween piston rings and cylinder bores,and in the crankshaft bearings as theybegin to rotate during engine start-up.As more vehicle manufacturers introducestop-start technology to eliminatewasteful idling and improve urban fueleconomy, start-up conditions will occurmuch more frequently, from an averageof around 40,000 times in a lifetime toone million.”

Millers Oils used nanotechnology tocreate a combination of low viscousfriction and reduced boundary friction.Proven in their range of transmissionlubricants that won the WorldMotorsport Symposium’s ProductInnovation award, the technology hasnow been further developed to provide afamily of race engine lubricants.

Nano TechnologyLubricants from Millers Oils

Martyn Mann,Millers Oilstechnicaldirector

The technology behind the Nanodrive range was developed entirely in house, in Millers’ new state-of-the-art research and development centre

Nevil Hall,Millers Oilsjoint

managingdirector

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The power gained by cutting frictionallosses was independently demonstrated inrolling road tests on a Porsche 911 RSR.With a conventional 10w60 grade racelubricant, the car produced 268bhp,measured to DIN70020. On replacing theengine oil with Millers 10w60NTNanodrive the result was 283bhp, anincrease of 5.6 percent.

“With prices of Nanodrive oils onlyaround a third higher than conventionalsynthetic lubricants, the power gains lookextremely good value for money,”concluded Hall. “Couple that with acorresponding CO2 reduction and webelieve that there is a key role for these

lubricants beyond motorsport, particularlyin vehicles with downsized bearings, instop-start applications, where animmediate drop in CO2 is required and inspecialist high performance vehicles.”

LINKwww.millersoils.co.uk

Millers joint managing director, NevilHall, said that a Nanodrive variant forhigh performance road cars is alreadyin development.

The precise chemistry involved is being kept confidential but Millers Oilsattributes the breakthrough to theexceptional reactivity of the nanoparticles used in the formulation.“The particles we use have some veryspecial properties that make themuniquely useful as lubricants forextreme conditions,” said Mann. “Asthe contact load between opposingengine parts increases, reactionsbetween the particles and the metallicsurfaces actually lead to a reduction infriction. Another useful property is theway the nanoparticles nest aroundeach other, like the layers of an onion,able to peel off under pressure,shedding a slippery, protective filmover the metal surfaces to reducefriction and wear.”

In comparison tests with conventionalboundary lubricants such asmolybdenum disulphide, conducted atMillers new R&D centre in Yorkshire(UK), Nanodrive lubricants reducedfriction by up to 25 percent whileincreasing load capacity by up to 80 percent.

A typical test to compare the slidingfriction performance of differentlubricants involves a high frequencyreciprocating rig in which a steel ball isloaded against a reciprocating plate. Ina test for a Formula One transmissionapplication the ball was loaded at 4Gigapascals (approximately twice theservice condition) while thetemperature was increased from 40oCto 160oC at 3oC per minute.

Mann outlined the test results: “Thefriction coefficient of a standard roadcar oil was 0.17 and the average filmstrength (measured by electricalresistivity) 84 percent. A race oil fromanother manufacturer showed frictionof 0.11 and film strength around 75percent. A competition oil from anotherbrand showed friction below 0.1 buthighly variable film strength, averaging34 percent. Another race oil showed adrop in friction above 140degCmeaning any benefits are restricted toextreme temperature conditions.

Millers current triple ester synthetic oilshowed a good friction figure with afilm strength of 98% but the newNanorange recorded a friction valuethat began to drop away from around75oC, falling to 0.06 while retaining afilm strength of 98% – halving thefriction without losing any film strength.

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