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Tribology in Space Robotic Actuators: Experimental Method for Evaluation and Analysis of Gearboxes
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Machine Elements.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0851-8475
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Machine Elements.
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Machine Elements.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8972-2944
2021 (English)In: Aerospace, ISSN 2226-4310, Vol. 8, no 3, article id 75Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Liquid lubricants are critical to enable long-life operation of high-performance machinery, such as geared actuators employed in robotics. In space applications, actuator gearboxes must operate in low temperatures, where liquid lubricants face inherent problems related to low temperature rheology. Heaters are relied upon to provide acceptable gearbox temperatures. Unfortunately, heating is energy-intense and does not scale well with increasing mechanism mass and performance. Effective boundary lubrication (BL), on the other hand, can minimize problems of low temperature rheology. BL relies on tribofilm formation over conventional fluid film separation. Effective space grade boundary lubricants can potentially allow for drastically reduced amounts of oil and the accompanying rheological problems. In this work, we describe the design of a methodology to evaluate and analyze tribology of actuator gearboxes operated under cryogenic oil-starved conditions in N2 atmosphere. The devised methodology enables research pertinent to space actuator tribology by accelerated testing and advanced analysis, as demonstrated by a lubricant candidate case study. Complementary microscopy techniques are discussed, and a novel methodology devised for gear internal microstructure analysis by X-ray microtomography (XMT) is presented.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI, 2021. Vol. 8, no 3, article id 75
Keywords [en]
tribotesting, starved lubrication, cryogenic lubrication, space-tribology, COTS, X-ray microtomography, computed tomography, XMT, CT-scan, lab-to-field upscaling
National Category
Other Mechanical Engineering
Research subject
Machine Elements
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-83514DOI: 10.3390/aerospace8030075ISI: 000633205600001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85103178930OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-83514DiVA, id: diva2:1542639
Note

Validerad;2021;Nivå 2;2021-04-08 (alebob);

Finansiär: Taiho Kogyo Research Foundation; Austrian COMET-Program InTribology1 (872176)

Available from: 2021-04-08 Created: 2021-04-08 Last updated: 2025-02-14Bibliographically approved

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Nyberg, ErikMinami, Ichiro

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