The adoption of scroll type air compressor is gradually increased in the automotive/residential air-conditioner and clean air compressor, and the most of critical components of the scroll are made of aluminum to reduce the friction and weight. Many studies for the surface treatment of the aluminum have been performed to reduce the friction between the components. In the preceding research, we suggested the most appropriate combination of the solid lubricant. In this study, we coated the part of fixed or orbiting scroll wrap with the solid lubricant that suggested in the preceding research, and then have performed analysis of performance characteristics for the part. As a result, we could obtain the 7.66μm of the coating thickness, Ra 0.8μm of the surface roughness and 0.088 of the friction coefficient. These represent the satisfactory capability of the suggested solid lubricant for the scroll type air compressor.

The coating of solid lubricant on the part of fixed or orbiting scroll wrap in a scroll compressor can not only reduce friction loss, noise & vibration and time cost for surface finishing but also improve efficiency and performance of the compressor. In this study, we found the most appropriate combination of the solid lubricant by carrying out many measurements and tests such as coefficient of friction, surface structure, the coating thickness and surface roughness for the various cases. We have come to conclusion that the most appropriate solid lubricant can be obtained by adding WS2 3% to Base(SM 3901) without any solvent and filler.

Electric scroll-compressor drives are commonly used for e.g. home appliance cooling units. The recent development of hybrid cars with internal combustion engine in combination with electrical propulsion requires new solutions to be able to cool the passenger compartment of cars at stand-still. Both application areas demand efficient motor drives to reach good economy and efficient use of limited battery power as well as competitive volume/weight for a given output. The BLDC motor is a controllable and efficient solution. A major part of the motor is the soft-magnetic core. The powder based Somaloy® material shows high resistivity and induction as the result of engineered iron particles with in-organic coating. The unique features of compacted Somaloy® components can be utilized to enhance the shape and total volume of the BLDC motor with at least maintained efficiency compared to the use of traditional laminated steel sheet cores. A careful design of the Somaloy® components can also simplify assembly and positively influence the coil configuration. This study shows a comparison between a typical laminated BLDC motor and a redesigned, Somaloy® based version adapted for a scroll-compressor application.