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Despite the importance of wear characterization of cylinder bores, the multiscale nature of wear demands scale-invariant analyzes at different scales. In this work, a two-scale fractal method for characterization of worn surfaces from cylinder bores is proposed. The method is applied to investigate the effects of wear at plateau roughness and honing grooves scales from cylinder bores from an engine after 100 h dynamometer test. The two-scale fractal method presented strong correlation with wear, indicating that the analysis of the largest and the smallest scales of roughness from cylinder bores is enough to analyze surface changes due to wear at asperity level. Contact mechanics and friction models for cylinder bore/piston ring tribosystems can also benefit from the proposed method.

Internet has transformed all industries and the automotive sector is on its list. It is true that manufacturing has experienced great advances in recent years, but the massive use of internet in industry is about to revolutionize it once again. The Internet of Things (IoT), the Big Data Analytics and the use of RFID technology will revolutionize manufacturing, giving to the so called “smart factories” the ability for self-diagnosis, self-configuration and self-optimization. That is what we call Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution. However, how will Industry 4.0 affect automakers and end users of vehicles? What are the challenges to bring Industry 4.0 innovations to the manufacturing industry? The present work discusses future trends in engine manufacturing, focusing on the quality control of its main components. Also, a fully automated inspection technique for quality control of cylinder bores from internal combustion engines is presented.

It is well known that machine lifetime, reliability and performance are strongly related to wear. The wear of cylinder bores can increase blow-by, oil consumption, power losses and emissions. Moreover, it can produce axial wear scratches that can harm hydrodynamic support of piston rings, increasing wear even further. The comprehension of the main factors responsible for wear in cylinder bores is, therefore, indispensable for the increase of the efficiency of engines. Despite the great work reported in literature regarding to the analysis of wear in engine cylinders, the study of the types of oxides and tribofilms formed in the surface of the cylinders remains poor. Therefore, the present work aims to correlate wear of cylinder bores from flex-fuel vehicles with engine operating conditions.