PERSPECTIVES OF THE SILICATES NANOPOWDERS APPLYING IN OILS USED IN FIREFIGHTING EQUIPMENT

The results of operating tests analysis of firefighting engineering at the mileages close to major repair show the premature wear of friction surfaces as the main cause of failures points. In recent years, the powder of natural crushed serpentine is widely used as oils and lubricants additive. The main disadvantage here is the problem of the mineral grinding. Typically, the particle size of serpentine powders is within 1–40 microns. It means that some of the additive can be captured by filters. The large particles of the mineral penetrating into the rubbing surfaces gap works as abrasive materials. Therefore, an artificial serpentine powder development is an important task. Artificial serpentine does not have flaws of natural mineral. It has a nano-sized particles and can be used as universal additive for oils and lubricants. The investigations of serpentine powders prepared by different methods were carried out on DRON-2,0 X-ray general purpose diffractometer. Study of the tribological characteristics of the developed additives was carried out on friction and wear testing machine SMT-1. The laser microanalyzer “Analizetter 22” were used to control the size of the additives particles and the number of various sizes particles calculations the dispersion. Investigations have shown that the use of serpentine powders as a lubricants additives leads to the tribological properties increasing. Friction coefficient and wear decreasing are connected with high hardness layer forming on friction surface. But studies show that microhardness should not increase by more than 1.5 times for the tribological properties maximum improvement in the “steel – babbitt” friction pair. Artificial serpentine nanopowder additive acts positively on the tribological properties of the lubricant composition reducing the friction coefficient and wear. The use of new lubricants additives will allow achieve the positive results, such as extended operating life up to 2 times of the vehicles motor, reducing accidental damages of equipment, reducing repair equipment costs, saving fuel and oil.