Recent Patents on Energy Conservation in Gears and Bearings by the Boundary Slippage Technology

The paper reviews recent patents by applying the boundary slippage technology to conserve the energy consumption in hydrodynamic lubricated gears and bearings. This technology has also the benefits of increasing the load-carrying capacity of hydrodynamic lubricated mechanical components. Several inventions were discussed outlining how to apply the boundary slippage technology in gears and bearings for different operating conditions. The future direction of the boundary slippage technology may be to develop special surface coatings which are hydrophobic or oil-phobic to generate significantly low lubricant-contact interfacial shear strengths for greatly improving the performances of hydrodynamic lubricated mechanical components.