Before Anti Wear 1….. wear happened.
Friction and wear, originally considered as one and the same problem, merged in the minds of technical people. Researchers as far back as World War II thought by trying to reduce friction, wear would be reduced. This approach came from “conventional wisdom”, not technical wisdom. Modifying friction with additives in lubricants is measured with Falex or Timken testers. When such testers are used for point of sales demonstrations at auto shows and county fairs, the public is deceived. What you see in these demos has nothing to do with wear reduction. Such demos illustrate short-term friction reduction lasting only a few minutes. Wear is the long-term problem needing a solution.
Attempting to reduce friction is not significantly useful to reduce wear but was the only approach considered until the product Anti Wear 1 appeared. Prior to this only an insignificant amount 5% of friction reduction was realized with no long-term wear reduction. This was revealed during the research phase of Anti Wear 1.
Eugene Lally designed, built and raced sports cars on the California race circuit in the early 60’s. At the time he was a scientist writing the original proposals to explore the planets for NASA while working at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
His racing experiences sparked interest to improve lubrication for automobiles and industrial applications. Lally felt this important area, called tribology, was neglected and offered much room for innovation. He subsequently spent years researching wear and related issues to understand the root causes of wear and the potential approaches to combat wear.
Early on he found friction played only a minor roll in causing wear, contrary to previous assumptions. Wear is problem causing and the costly element in maintenance so he worked that area. Lally embarked on unconventional and never attempted directions to help solve wear, the oldest unsolved problem for machinery.
He put the horse before the cart, as technically should be the case, and learned the root cause mechanics of wear first before starting research to determine how to reduce it. Previous approaches explored chemical additives for lubricants using particulate materials to attempt friction reduction without understanding wear’s root causes. Those materials included: molybdenum, graphite, paraffin waxes, zinc, cooper, Teflon etc. They had negligible effect on friction reduction and even less effect on wear and in many cases caused problems in machinery.
Possible solutions could not be considered until research revealed root causes of wear. He decided to take one step at a time and see where it would lead. Lally eventually left Caltech and aerospace to start his own company, Dynamic Development Co., to work on this and other ideas he wanted to explore.
He concluded that a real-time solution to fight wear was the logical approach. His goal became to repair wear on rubbing metal parts in machinery as it was occurring. Metallurgy of parts improved for years but excessive wear continued to exist causing age-old labor and replacement parts costs and down time in industrial settings. All the parameters in the wear equation were constants except for lubrication.
He turned toward the only variable that could be adjusted after machinery is built,
the lubrication variable. What could be done to standard lubricants to enable them to influence the surface of working metal parts? Changing metal surfaces from a constant parameter to a variable parameter was key to the solution.
Using his research of wear processes, he moved ahead in several directions. About that time another Caltech researcher, Richard Feynman, began conceptualizing the building of molecular size machines to perform useful work inside machinery for self-maintenance and other purposes. Feynman named this new science, nanotechnology. This concept is very far out; little progress has been made to date.
One of Lally’s research directions was a chemical approach to provide surface repairs of wearing machinery parts. He was encouraged by the nanotechnology concept and concentrated on his chemical approach, which turned out to be a form of molecular nantechnology.
Rather than molecular size machines, his approach explored controlling nearby surface molecules distorted and displaced by scuffing. Scuffing leads to surface spalling followed by a full-blown chain reaction of surface wear. Wear is scuffed metal breaking away from the surface, entering the lubrication system and causing a chain reaction of more wear as metal particles circulate.
He developed chemical formulas for blending into standard lubricants and when combined together enabled surface molecule control related to his root cause of wear findings. Molecules are controlled to migrate toward nearby preferred locations and graft themselves
there. These preferred locations, the wearing areas, are subject to stress fatigue and need stress relief to prevent weakening of molecular bonds causing surface break away. Relieving the stress with a chemical catalyst provided the key to molecular control, which is where Anti Wear 1’s proprietary capabilities created groundbreaking technology.
Anti Wear 1’s catalyst capabilities coupled with internal pressures and temperatures provided a unique surface healing system. The results are able to modify and rearrange surface molecules at the wearing points where stress relief is required. With this process, newly formed wearing surface locations are immediately repaired before the damaging chain reaction processes of wear begin. An optimized chemical formula was finalized resulting in 90% wear reduction beyond lubricants alone. This formula became the product called Anti Wear 1, available worldwide. As a side effect, friction is reduced 40%, which reduces equipment and lubrication operating temperatures to extend lubricant useful lifetime. Also in engines, horsepower and torque are increased and fuel/energy consumption reduced. Before Anti Wear 1, less than 5% friction reduction was attainable not 40%.
Anti Wear 1 contains no petroleum distillates and no particulate materials or suspended soft metals.
Using Anti Wear 1 in new machinery lubrication extends original performance specifications’ lifetime. Anti Wear 1 in older worn mechanical equipment suffering from reduced performance will help bring back performance as the worn surfaces become rehabilitated. This is accomplished without tear down and parts replacement
Phone 949.768.5798 Email: lally@dynamicdevelopment.com
© 2004 Dynamic Development Co. File: 0403AWstory