Effects of dressed wheel topography on patterned surface textures and grinding force

The camshaft is a crucial component of an engine’s valve train. This paper devotes to the experimental studies of the performance of laser surface textured (LST) camshaft. The first part experiment was carried out on the block-on-ring tester to investigate the tribological behaviors of textured surface in line contact. The area density of the textured dimples was in the range 3–40% with depths 5–24 μm and diameter 70 μm. The friction coefficient and wear tracks were analyzed to confirm the optimum textured patterns. After that, the local LST cams (textured on the lifting region) were further tested in a single-cylinder diesel. It was found that after 300 h durability test at the rated speed and load, the total lifting loss of cams decreased nearly 34.4% in maximum. In addition, the performance of the engine was not affected evidently. The enhanced lubricity and local hardening were two mechanisms for highly promoting the anti-wear property of the LST cams.