Friction and Wear Characteristics of TiN Coated Vane for the Rotary Compressor in a R410A Refrigerant©

Abstract

HFC is a potential alternative refrigerant for CFC, which depletes the ozone layer. The rotary compressor has been widely used for refrigeration and air-conditioning systems due to its compactness and high-speed operation. R410A, an HFC refrigerant, is used in a refrigerator compressor, but its frictional characteristic is not established. In this study, the influence of R410A refrigerant on the roller-vane surfaces was studied, and friction and wear characteristics of the TiN coated vane were investigated. The friction and wear data were obtained with a specially designed high-pressure wear tester. A testing environment charged with HFC refrigerant more closely simulates the operating conditions of a real rotary compressor. In pure oil without R410A, wear of the TiN coated vane was larger than that of the uncoated vane. But when the refrigerant was dissolved in oil, wear of the uncoated vane was larger than that of the TiN coated vane. This showed that a TiN coated vane is good relative to wear resistance in the refrigerant/lubricant mixed environment. As the rotating speed of the frictional motion increased, wear increased. But in the high-velocity region, wear decreased because the boundary lubrication is changed into the mixed lubrication in the lubrication region. As the pressure grew larger, wear volume and coefficient of friction became larger. This is because the amount of the refrigerants dissolved in oil increased and the viscosity of oil dropped as the pressure increased.