May 28 2009
The Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation's 36-year-old National Inventor of the Year Award program recognizes individuals that epitomize American traditions of technological leadership, and increases public awareness of current inventors and how they benefit the nation's economy and our quality of life.
The 2009 Inventor of the Year award goes to Ford and Flame-Spray Industries for the collaborative development of the spray apparatus for use with Ford's patented production-ready Plasma Transferred Wire Arc (PTWA) thermal spray coating process for aluminum engine blocks.
This accomplishment puts Ford and Flame-Spray Industries in elite company with medical and pharmaceutical powerhouses as well as agricultural and chemical standouts, among others. Past Inventors of the Year, for example, include Dr. Raymond Damadian of Fonar Corporation for the development of Upright MRI technology and Dr. Ihor Lys of Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions for his development of a more efficient LED lighting system.
The team of inventors being honored at the National Inventor of the Year Award ceremony in Washington, D.C., on May 28 is Ford retiree James Baughman and Dr. David Cook, Keith Kowalsky and Daniel Marantz of supplier Flame-Spray Industries. Cook was a member of the Ford team when the spray device initially was developed.
How it Works
The Ford-patented PTWA thermal spray technology for cylinder bores replaces the heavy cast iron liners typically required with aluminum block engines with a low-friction, wear-resistant thermal spray coating. The plasma-sprayed coating offers several advantages, including:
- Engine weight reductions - the coating can reduce the weight of a V-6 engine, for instance, by approximately six pounds
- Reduced friction between the piston rings and cylinder bore, which has been shown to deliver measurable friction reduction
- Improved oil and fuel economy
- Improved engine performance due to better heat management
In addition, the PTWA coating process has been used to recycle damaged and worn aluminum and cast iron engine blocks by applying the wear-resistant coating to the cylinder bore surface. Remanufacturing engines using the PTWA process requires 50 percent to 80 percent less energy to produce compared with a new manufactured engine block - demonstrating another step toward Ford's commitment to reducing its manufacturing CO2 footprint.
Aerospace Meets the Road
Thermal spray coatings have been used for years, popular in the aerospace industry for increasing the durability and performance of aircraft turbine engines.
Ford researchers began collaborating with Flame-Spray Industries and other suppliers in the 1990s to transfer this efficient, lightweight aerospace technology to a low-cost, high-volume application suitable for the auto industry. One of the challenges was to create a robust coating applicator since commonly-used thermal spray devices were not capable of coating cylinder bores of automotive engine blocks.
The innovative PTWA spray torch technology was a significant enabler of making this high-volume coating process more reliable for automotive applications, while offering the economies of scale for low-cost coating of engine cylinder bores.