International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)

Volume 6, Issue 11, Nov 2015, pp. 244-250, Article ID: IJMET_06_11_026
Available online at
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ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
IAEME Publication

INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF

PHOSPHATE SURFACE COATING ON THE
FATIGUE PERFORMANCE OF THE PISTON
PIN MATERIALS
Hemant V Chavan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mumbai University,
FAMT, Maharashtra, India
Milind S.Yadav
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mumbai University,
FAMT, Maharashtra, India
ABSTRACT
Piston pin play a vital role in the reciprocating internal combustion
engine. Failure of piston pin will result in failure of engine. Improper
carburizing technology leads to decarburization of surface decreases intensely
the fatigue strength of surface so that crack initiated from the surface and
propagated, at last fatigue fracture occurred. Every effort has to be made to
improve fatigue properties of piston pin and when it is necessary to upgrade
the sliding characteristics and wear resistance of metal surface, coating can
often be used effectively without sacrificing any of the major property
requirements of the substrate material. In this work, the investigation effect of
phosphating surface coating on piston pin of different material is studied by
using design of experiments. In the present work, improvement in fatigue life is
obtained by manganese phosphating process with optimizing parameters The
ANOVA and F test are used to analyze the results.
Key words: Fatigue Failure, Optimized Process Parameter, Manganese
Phosphating, Piston Pin, Taguchi Method
Cite this Article: Hemant V chavan and Milind S.Yadav. Investigate the
Effect of Phosphate Surface Coating on the Fatigue Performance of the Piston
Pin Materials, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and
Technology, 6(11), 2015, pp. 244-250.
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Investigate The Effect of Phosphate Surface Coating on The Fatigue Performance of The
Piston Pin Materials

1. INTRODUCTION
In the automotive and machinery industry, there is a great deal of interest in
improving environmental friendliness, reliability, durability and efficiency. The
reduction of wear and friction is a key element in decreasing the energy losses,
particularly in engines and drive trains. Surface treatments and coatings contribute to
a better lubrication with oils and can participate significantly in achieving these goals.
Among protective coatings, the class of carbon-based materials shows interesting
properties, combining low friction with a good wear resistance. For these reasons,
they are increasingly being used as protective films for moving parts. The use of such
non-metallic surfaces with new additives leads to investigations into the interaction
between these protective over layers and the base material.

1.1. Project Background

In internal combustion engine, a fundamental consequence of increasing the specific
power is increased temperature and stress in all parts of the engine that transmit the
force from the combustion gases. As engine piston runs hotter, the interface between
the piston and piston pin can become susceptible to wear. Therefore, an inexpensive
and efficient way to investigate the effect of changes in piston pin on fatigue life of
pin is needed. Surface treatments also play a major role in the performance of the
piston pin. It is investigated that fatigue fracture takes place because of crack initiate
at the surface of piston pin. The failure of a piston pin can damage other engine
components including the connecting rods or even the engine block itself.
Considering the importance of piston pin failure, a piston pin must be designed to last
the lifetime of an engine. Now, the wear resistance of piston pin has been improved
by using hard, thin surface coatings. These are diamond like carbon coating which
have been shown to be beneficial, and pins with these kind of coating have been
reasonably widespread use in many categories of automobile engineering

1.2 Problem Definition

Phosphating is most widely used metal surface treatment process. Due to its ability to
afford excellent corrosion, wear resistance, adhesion and lubricative properties, it play
a significant role in automobile application such as piston ring. Hence an attempt will
be made in the present study to replace DLC coating by phosphating coating
.Therefore a development of innovative idea to substitute DLC coated piston pin and
to improve fatigue performance of piston pin material. Thus problem can be defined
as, "Investigate the effect of phosphate surface coating on the fatigue performance of
the piston pin material ".

2. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
In view of extensive application of low alloy steel for making piston pin, we selected
EN 24 as a material for experiments.

2.1 Mechanical Testing

For determining the mechanical properties, tensile tests were conducted within the
elastic limit of the steel.

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Hemant V chavan and Milind S.Yadav

Table No 1 Mechanical Properties of Materials

Steel
grade

Yield load

Ultimate
load

Yiels
Strength

Ultimate Tensile
strength

%
Elongation

Hardness

EN 24

10720 N

13800 N

537 MPa

692 MPa

24.72

41 HRC

2.2 Spectroscopic Test

The chemical composition of each grade of steel was evaluated through the
spectroscopic analysis, the result of which are given in table
Table No 2 Chemical Composition of Materials
Weight Percentage of elements

Steel Grade
EN 24

Mn

Si

Cr

Ni

Mo

0.47

0.59

0.24

0.022

0.034

1.100

1.430

0.250

2.3. Fatigue test specimen

Based on the recommendations provided in standards, dumbbell shaped round test
specimens having nominal neck diameter of 6 mm and 18 mm transition fillets were
prepared for carrying out fatigue tests. The drawing of the specimen is given in figure
1

Figure 1 Test Specimen

2.4. Phosphating process

The coating unit comprised of a number of modular, tube-shaped component holders
for accommodating the components to be coated. In order to achieve a uniform
deposit over the entire surface of the components during the coating process, the
component holders are given complex spinning motion by means of geararrangements.

3. DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT
The experiments were designed to establish the effects of phosphating parameters on
fatigue strength of EN 24 as a piston pin material Optimum setting of process
parameter is a crucial aspect to improve phosphate ability of specimen. a generic
signal to noise (S/N) ratio is used to quantify the present variation.
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Investigate The Effect of Phosphate Surface Coating on The Fatigue Performance of The
Piston Pin Materials

3.1. Response variable

Response variable are the requirements placed on the systems output. In the present
study, increase in fatigue life of piston pin of manganese phosphate coated is the main
objective. Hence the response variable used is to accomplish this study is to increase
fatigue life of piston pin in number of cycles.

3.2. Choice of Test Parameters

The three factors temperature, phosphate time, accelerator were considered as the
control factors affecting the fatigue life. Design parameters are the controllable factors
that are the testing parameters such as temperature, Phosphating time and accelerator
are easier to control. The levels are chosen keeping in mind the low thickness of the
coating otherwise wear may occur through the coating.
Table 3 design parameter level
Factors

Unit

Temperature
Phophating time
Accelerator

1
92
5
1

Deg C
Minute
mL / L

levels
2
93.5
10
1.5

3
95
15
2

3.3. Selection of Orthogonal array

In the present case since each of the main factors is associated with three levels, the
DOF of each of the factor is two. It is important to notice that the number of
experimental trial in the OAs must be greater than the total DOF required for studying
the effects. Hence L9 OA, requiring nine experimental trials is suitably chosen for the
present case

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 ANOVA analysis
The most important statistic in the analysis of variance table is the p-value (P), which
exists for each term in the model (except for the error term). The p-value for a term
tells you whether the effect for that term is significant.
The effect of temperature (P = 0.051) and accelerator is significant (p = 0.055)
indicates that with different level of temperature and accelerator result in to different
value for quality characteristics.
Table 4 ANOVA table
Source
Temperature
Phosphating
time
Accelerator
Residual error
Total

Seq SS

Adj SS

1611553

1611553

805776

18.57b

0.051

%
contribution
69.91

332540

332540

166270

3.83

0.207

10.96

2
2
8

1505778
86798
3536668

150778
86798

752889
43399

17.35

0.055

14.83
4.3

DF

Adj MS

4.2. Main Effects Plot

From figure, it shows that optimum parameters are temperature 95 oc, time 15 min
and accelerator level 1

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Hemant V chavan and Milind S.Yadav

Main Effects Plot for Means

Data Means

Temperature

Time

272600
272400

Mean of Means

272200
272000
271800
92.0

93.5
Accelerator

95.0

1.0

1.5

2.0

10

15

272600
272400
272200
272000
271800

Figure 2 Main Effects Plot

4.3. Confirmation Experiment

Based on these result, following level of parameter is selected.
Table 5 Level of selected parameter
Temperature

95 degree celsius

Phosphating Time

15 minutes

Accelerator

1 ml / L

4.4. Predicted Values

For the factor settings you selected, the S/N ratio is predicted to be 108.70 and the
mean (the fatigue life) is predicted to be 272257.

4.5 Evaluation of Experiment

In the present study, four confirmation experiments (r = 4) were carried out to
evaluate the performance of experimental trials for fatigue life under optimal
conditions.

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Investigate The Effect of Phosphate Surface Coating on The Fatigue Performance of The
Piston Pin Materials
Table 6 Evaluation of experiments
Experiments
1
2
3
4

Temperature
95
95
95
95

Time
15
15
15
15

Accelerator
1
1
1
1

Fatigue Life
272567
272632
272418
272469

4.6 Results of the confirmation experiment

Predicted result
95-15-1
229786

Level
Fatigue life

Experimental Result
95-15-1
272521.5

4.7 Comparison with uncoated specimen

Fatigue life

Uncoated life
229786

Coated life
272521.5

% increase in life
15.68

5. CONCLUSION
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.
8.
9.
10.

Taguchi orthogonal array design is suitably applied to maximize the fatigue life of
phosphate coated specimen by optimizing three factors temperature, time and
accelerator levels. The optimum testing condition obtained from the analysis yields
about 15.19 % increase in life compared to uncoated specimen.
In the performed experimental trials using Taguchi orthogonal arrays, it was found
that the Temperature (69%) had a significant effect on the fatigue life and followed
by temperature (11%) and time (15%).
The presence of alloying elements and their chemical nature can cause distinct
difference on phosphatability. This may be one of the reason for improvement in
fatigue life.
As seen from the percent contribution graph the percent contribution due to error is
low i.e 5 %, then it is assumed that no important factors were omitted from the
experiment and the opportunity for further improvement is not very great.
Based on ANOVA and F-test analysis, the most statistical significant and percent
contribution of the process parameter are Temperature, whereas phosphating time and
accelerator is less effective.
The optimized process parameter for maximizing fatigue life from Taguchi analysis
are approaching: Temperature 95 degree Celsius, Phosphating time 15 min and
accelerator 1 ml/ Liter with an estimated fatigue life of coated specimen is 272521.5
Cycles.
With the setting above process parameter level, predicted results are 229786 cycles.
The optimal range of fatigue life values obtained are (27168.52 < 272521.5 <
273475.91).
The difference between the predicted result and estimated result is satisfactory.
It is observed that an increase of 15.68 % in fatigue life of coated EN24 material
compared to uncoated specimen.

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