Crane Cams Bought By Mikronite

[Steve Briscoe]

The March 2007 edition of HOT ROD Magazine has a brief article on page 30 about Mikronite buying Crane Cams. An except from the article is as follows - "The Mikronite process (it's not a coating) increases the sharpness, durability, lubricity and impact resistance of a part while reducing friction, resistance and corrision......Crane Cams name will remain the same, but it is now a division of Mikronite Technologies Group". Mikronite Technologies can be found at Mikronite®.

What do you guys think of the Mikronite process and do any of you have experience with the parts in your engines\race car?

 

[Lynn Larsen]

In short, it looks like micro polishing under pressure which yields a VERY smooth, regular surface on a part. This should reduce stress risers quite a bit over standard polishing techniques if their claims are accepted. They say the metallurgy is not changed, so it doesn't strengthen/harden the way, say, nitriting would. Although a semantical argument, one could say that it reduces inherent weakness, by reducing surface irregularities and the concentration of stresses that they cause, rather than strengthening the part (although this would be the end result if a non treated part was compared to an identical treated part.) The effectiveness of lubricants should also be enhanced by a smoother surface; read, a more laminar flow=less turbulence=less friction.

It sounds like it would be theoretically advantageous. And, they must have convinced a goodly number of people that it is so with test data proving that it is and showing the quantitative evidence of improvement.

 

[Steve Briscoe]

The Mikronite process looks like it applies to cast iron and steel. I suppose (?) it could also apply to titanium. Smoothing the metal and reducing friction has been around for a long time. I remember going to an auto show is the very early 80s and seeing a demonstration of Slick 50 where they ran a lawn mower engine without oil. In the past few years, one of the Unsers ran a Viper without oil after treating the engine with Prolong. Rest assured, I won't be doing either of these tests but they sure are interesting. The pursuit of reducing parasitic loss of power through metal treatment seems to be a real live option. The Mikronite folks should do a "before and after" dyno test that shows the results in data form.