1.

BASIC PRINCIPLES PISTON RINGS  18 | 19

1.5 STRUCTURE AND SHAPE OF PISTON RINGS

1.5.1 PISTON RING MATERIALS

Piston ring materials are selected based on runnability and the

conditions that the piston rings have to work under. Good
elasticity and corrosion resistance are just as important as a
high resistance to damage under extreme operating conditions.
Grey cast iron is still the main material used to manufacture
piston rings today. From a tribological perspective, grey cast
iron and the graphite deposits in the joint offer extremely good
emergency running properties (dry lubrication via graphite).

These are particularly important if the lubrication via engine oil

is no longer guaranteed or the lubricating film is already
destroyed. Graphite veins within the ring structure also act as
an oil reservoir and, here to, serve to combat the destruction of
the lubricating film under adverse operating conditions.

The following materials are used as grey cast iron materials

• Cast iron with lamellar graphite structure (lamellar graphite
cast iron), annealed and non-annealed
• Cast iron with nodular graphite structure (nodular cast iron),
annealed and non-annealed Piston ring casting process

Chrome steel with martensitic microstructure and spring steel

are used as steel. To increase the wear resistance, the surfaces
are hardened. This usually takes place via nitriding*.

* In specialist language, nitriding refers to the supply of nitrogen and is a process for
hardening steel. Nitriding is usually carried out at temperatures between 500 and 520 °C
with treatment times of 1 to 100 hours. Nitrogen is diffused onto the workpiece surface
to form an extremely hard, superficial compound layer of iron nitride. Depending on the
treatment time, this can have a thickness between 10–30 µm. Common methods
include salt bath nitriding (e.g. crankshafts), gas nitriding (with piston rings) and plasma
nitriding.