Testing piston rings with partial laser surface texturing for friction reduction

An experimental study is presented to evaluate the effect of partial laser surface texturing (LST) on friction reduction in piston rings. Tests were performed on a reciprocating test rig with actual piston rings and cylinder liner segments. A comparison was made between the performance of a reference non-textured conventional barrel shape rings and optimum partial LST cylindrical shape rings. It was found that the partial LST piston rings exhibited about 25% lower friction.