Laser surface texturing of Wankel engine apex seals

Apex Seals for a MEMS Rotary Engine

This paper presents possible solutions to the problem of leakage in the MEMS rotary engine currently being developed at U.C. Berkeley. The project is motivated by the challenge to develop a system capable of a higher specific energy than primary batteries. Currently, leakage is the limiting factor in obtaining an engine with an acceptable efficiency. Fluidic analysis has been done to determine ...

Acceleration of the Apex Seals in a Wankel Rotary Compressor Including Manufacturing Process Variation in Location of the Seals

Laser Surface Texturing of Polymers for Biomedical Applications

Polymers are materials widely used in biomedical science because of their biocompatibility, and good mechanical properties (which, in some cases, are similar to those of human tissues); however, these materials are, in general, chemically and biologically inert. Surface characteristics, such as topography (at the macro-, micro, and nano-scale), surface chemistry, surface energy, charge, or wett...

Effect of surface texturing by femtosecond laser on tantalum carbide ceramics for solar receiver applications

Tantalum carbide, as a Ultra-High Temperature Ceramic, is known to be characterized by intrinsic spectral selectivity, which makes it attractive for novel high-temperature thermal solar absorbers. However, a weakness point of TaC is the solar absorbance, which, in absence of any treatment, is usually lower than that of other materials currently under development for solar absorber applications....

Wear Characterization of Cemented Carbides (WC–CoNi) Processed by Laser Surface Texturing under Abrasive Machining Conditions

Cemented carbides are outstanding engineering materials widely used in quite demanding material removal applications. In this study, laser surface texturing is implemented for enhancing, at the surface level, the intrinsic bulk-like tribological performance of these materials. In this regard, hexagonal pyramids patterned on the cutting surface of a tungsten cemented carbide grade (WC–CoNi) have...