Study on friction and wear reducing surface micro-structures for a positive displacement pump handling highly abrasive shale oil

In the recent years the capability of laser manufactured micro-structures to reduce friction has been investigated. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential of surface texturing through ultra-short-pulse laser ablation to improve the performance of special positive displacement pumps handling shale oil, which contains highly abrasive particles. In this work pin-on-disc tests were carried out on picosecond laser structured samples. The most suitable texturing parameters were experimentally found and the effect of each parameter on friction reduction was analyzed. Results revealed that friction and wear generated on the pumps may be considerably reduced and that the aspect ratio of the applied micro-dimples is in this case the most critical texturing parameter.