How To Reduce Friction: 9 Methods
Friction — like gravity — influences our daily lives more than is apparent at first glance. This resistive force has numerous applications, including in the automotive industry.
Friction is responsible for automotive performance, fuel efficiency, and maintenance costs. It manifests as mechanical resistance, aerodynamic drag, and the interaction between your car’s tires and the road beneath them.
When you’re ready to apply many of these solutions to your car, rely on the experts at Cadence to direct you toward high-quality, innovative products designed to reduce friction and extend performance. This guide explores friction’s role in the automotive industry and why it’s crucial. Discover how to reduce friction in and around your vehicle through the nine critical methods listed below.
How Does Friction Play a Role in Automotive Performance?
Friction is characterized by the resistance felt when two surfaces contact one another.
Friction exists between your shoe and the pavement as you walk down the street, but you overcome it with forward movement. It’s also responsible for many interactions in the automotive world.
For instance, mechanical friction between your car’s brake pads and the brake rotor allows your vehicle to come to a stop instead of continuing at speed. Friction can also help your vehicle maintain stability through rolling resistance and traction control. Air movement against your car as you drive — aerodynamic drag or air resistance — also creates friction.
Why Is it Important To Reduce Friction?
Reducing friction increases energy efficiency, improves performance, and reduces deterioration. When two objects experience friction, moving them past one another requires additional energy that can reduce efficiency and performance.
Repeated contact can also wear down surfaces, resulting in greater tolerances that can eventually lead to failure.
However, a lack of friction can be just as damaging as excessive friction. For example, loss of friction can cause a car to hydroplane or slide due to black ice. On the opposite end of the spectrum, too much friction impedes motion, increases wear and tear on moving parts, and can alter the properties of specific components as temperatures rise.
Reduced friction often promotes harmony between automotive components and contributes to greater longevity as a whole. Moving parts experience less resistance, which increases their efficiency and lifespan. Improved performance can also translate to longer maintenance intervals and fewer repairs in the long run.
How To Reduce Friction: 9 Methods
Lubricants, surface coatings, and bearings help reduce friction among various automotive applications. Polished components minimize resistance between surfaces and allow for greater efficiency.
Friction reduction practices can also be implemented during the design process for a widespread effect.
How To Reduce Mechanical Friction
Optimal in brake performance yet catastrophic within the combustion chamber, mechanical friction plays a dual role in automotive performance.
Below are three ways you can reduce mechanical friction:
- Purchase high-quality lubricants: Motor oils reduce friction between critical engine components. Properly lubricating your vehicle starts with regular oil changes per the manufacturer’s recommendations.
- Invest in optimal components: Replacement parts with built-in friction reduction increase your vehicle’s efficiency in that particular operation and overall.
- Opt for precision engineering: Quality components machined to tight tolerances help maintain efficiency where your vehicle needs it most.
Fuel additives such as friction modifiers reduce the fuel’s friction coefficient, increasing lubricity and efficiency. Understanding the role of oil in this process is crucial, and an oil analysis can provide valuable insights. Friction modifiers are often used in transmissions, power steering systems, and shock absorbers to minimize metal scoring, micro-pitting, and overall wear.
Most friction modifiers contain water-soluble and oil-soluble components that work together to reduce friction.
How To Reduce Aerodynamic Drag
Supercars excel at optimal aerodynamic drag with their swooping curves and low-slung designs that create a silhouette of beauty in the wind tunnel. Electric vehicles (EVs) take a page out of the same book, reducing aerodynamic drag to increase range.
Use the following three friction-reducing methods to improve your vehicle’s aerodynamic drag:
- Streamlined designs: Purchase vehicles with low aerodynamic drag coefficients, like low-profile sedans.
- Maximize aerodynamics: Leverage adjustable spoilers and air intakes to direct airflow over, through, and beneath your vehicle.
- Reduce air resistance: To reduce aerodynamic drag, remove bulky components on top of your vehicle, such as cargo carriers or bike racks.
You can experience the difference in aerodynamic drag between a car and a motorcycle. A motorcycle’s fairing helps direct airflow, but riders often disrupt that flow unless they meld to the bike’s frame.
How To Reduce Rolling Resistance
Rolling resistance is the interaction between your tires and the road surface. Minimizing this exchange leads to the loss of traction, but optimizing it enables your vehicle to expend only as much energy as necessary to drive down the road safely.
Here are three methods for reducing rolling resistance:
- Take advantage of tire technology: Low-resistance tire compounds protect your investment with longer lifespans that are less susceptible to friction caused by the road’s surface.
- Ensure appropriate tire inflation: As the seasons change, the air pressure within your car’s tires fluctuates. Inflate your tires to the specifications listed on your driver’s door jamb for optimal performance and reduce friction that can lead to premature tire degradation.
- Maintain proper alignment: An alignment ensures your car travels straight down the road, protecting the longevity of your tires and suspension. Hitting a large pothole or the curb can cause misalignment that increases friction among suspension components.
When it comes to your vehicle’s tires and suspension system, the use of bearings can also reduce friction without sacrificing performance.
For example, automotive bearings reduce friction on parts like crankshafts, transmission gears, differential assemblies, connecting rods, and camshafts. This controlled slippage, if you will, increases energy efficiency and allows for smooth operation.
Our Nashville clients have particularly benefited from our methods for reducing rolling resistance, reporting improved fuel efficiency and smoother rides.
How Can Regular Maintenance Reduce Friction?
You don’t need a degree in chemical engineering to reduce friction in your car. Instead, sticking to a maintenance routine can help increase your car’s efficiency, performance, and longevity. Ensure your vehicle has adequate lubrication, optimal alignment, and safe tire conditions to keep friction losses to a minimum. In case you run out of fuel during your travels, a fuel delivery service can be a lifesaver, ensuring you can continue your journey with minimal disruption.
Maintain Your Vehicle’s Longevity With Cadence
Friction reduction is a vital part of the automotive manufacturing process, but the nine methods described above can help you reduce friction in and around your car to improve efficiency and increase its longevity.
Now that you understand how various products — such as oil and fuel additives — can reduce friction in your car’s engine, you can take better care of your vehicle and benefit from the results. For the highest-quality friction-reducing products, rely on Cadence’s industry experience and dedication to excellence that keeps America moving.
To learn more about how Cadence can serve your needs, call us at 336-629-2061 to speak with a friendly and knowledgeable representative.
Sources:
Factors That Affect Aerodynamics | Glenn Research Center | NASA
Friction & Air Resistance | Lemonade-Ed
What Is a Car Spoiler? | CARFAX
Red Light, Green Light: Forces of Friction, Roads & Tires - Lesson | TeachEngineering