The Evolution Of Lasting
Here’s an interesting guest post passed along to me today (not the sort of thing we tend to cover… and not really anything I’ve ever thought about, but seems quite important and fitting):
With advancing technology comes great benefits, and the automotive industry is certainly a top example of how the development of efficiency and longevity for moving components such as engines improves our world. Indeed, some amazing strides have been made since the first internal combustion engine appeared on the automotive scene years ago. Here we look at several key factors that contribute to the ease of use and reliability we have all come to accept as standard:
As everyone knows, friction is the enemy in a motor, as it produces both component wear and radiates heat. The proper lubricants are essential to combat these two elements, reducing energy loss and increasing dynamic efficiency. In a perfect world, if opposing components never came into contact with each other, they would last forever and never overheat. Lubricating oil goes a long way in that direction, as statistics show that over half the energy lost from an engine is due to friction.
Inherently, however, lubricants are actually designed to be used up over time, rather than last indefinitely. Fortunately, today’s scientists and engineers have overcome a great many elements that at first baffled them. The very first oils and lubricants were much less effective in resisting thermal breakdown, including evaporation and viscosity loss. While today’s products can easily remain fluid in cold temperatures for easier cold starts and fast start-up circulation, early efforts fell far short.
The result, initially, was difficult operation and general frustration all around, as parts wore out quickly and operating temperatures went through the roof. Synthetic engine oil, for example, was nowhere in sight, and sludge and carbon deposits were all too common. These buildups hampered economy and performance, to say nothing of emissions before the time of fuel catalysts. Al Gore would not have approved.
Today’s methods of sealing and insulating have also contributed to component lifespan, some say boosting operational efficiency as much as twenty percent. This applies not only to engine seals but also other fluid-related piping and connections. In the case of Apple Rubber o-rings, produced by a leading designer and manufacturer of seals and seal material science, modern techniques have resulted in an airtight and leakproof barrier that engineers could only have dreamed of not two decades ago.
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As increasingly stringent emissions and fuel standards are imposed on the auto industry at large, our methods of prolonging engine life and maximizing energy efficiency are forced to evolve and improve.Several EPA laws will be coming into effect with regard to auto manufacturer production in 2016, and engineers are scrambling to make the deadline. If history is any indicator, our lives will only be made the better from their efforts.
This post was sponsored by Apple Rubber, maker and seller of O-Rings. Author Bio: Nancy is a blogger, freelance writer and recent college graduate. She currently performs market research for an online marketing firm when she is not contributing her own thoughts and observations to the online community.
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