A RING THAT'S RIGHT FOR EVERY ENGINE

Racing is one of the top spectator sports in the United States but it's more than that as a test of engine and chassis racing renders invaluable assistance in the development of the motor car of today these races serve as a proving ground for major automotive manufacturers and suppliers [Music] I'm Lloyd ribbing [Music] I'm not at home in Texas I'm using one of these tracks driving one of these cars so this is my business I've been in for about 27 years over the past years I've won a few national championship races I know it's in Annapolis for the last 14 years about half of my fence and the other half I've been Washington being the best a lot of drivers who have engine problems I've had my share of that government cost efficient rate so I've really always be first circle practically all the racers do because they're the range that'll really stand up coordinate well I've been stopped on every kind of engine problem there is a sip range I'm really sold on perfect circle range for my passion car as well as my race car long before Lloyd ruby was born Perfect Circle was making piston rings they started making them in 1909 and their rings have been in the winning cars since the early 1920s this is one of the early wins the 1926 Indy 500 winner Frank lockhardt perfect circle has been an industry leader from the start over 40 years ago perfect circle introduced the first slotted Oil rings Packard Duesenberg Cadillac and other big names of that day used them for original equipment during world war ii many of our planes tanks and trucks ran without filters and under unusually severe wartime operating conditions the steel and iron rings of that day were inadequate perfect circle engineers came up with the answer chrome-plated rings after the war perfect circle was ready to supply chrome-plated rings for peacetime use in the mid 60s the automotive industry introduced their high compression high output engines for heavy duty installations and highway hauling to fill the need perfect circle engineers developed Molly coated top rings for these hot air running engines through its research new metals improved ring designs and manufacturing processes perfect circle has become the number one name in piston ring manufacture and design the point is it's perfect circle Mike the ring that is right for every engine whatever the engine needs perfect circle has it Deitrick comes in knowing what the engineid that's where technical knowledge and experience pays off you'll see why just as I did when I chaired perfect service for Indiana plans the tour starts at perfect circle's Rushville Indiana foundry at Rushville the first steps in the manufacture of rings begins in order to meet the specifications of the engine industry perfect circle makes rings in thousands of sizes and designs and each has its own casting pattern the casting patterns are now at the molder the molding sand is a laboratory formulated mixture of the composition of special types of sands and earths with a controlled moisture content the molders compressed the sand mixture the combination of high pressure and sand upon the face of the pattern forms a precise casting mold one stack of these molds will produce about 280 double rings the stack sands molds are conveyed to the poorest the melt is controlled and checked at every step the formula for the molten metal is specific for the type of ring being manufactured temperature of the melt is critical since the molten metal loses 1 degree of temperature per second the operator must complete the pour within 90 seconds to ensure a flow that will result in a perfect casting the formula of the molten metal is carefully controlled and supervised samples of the melter checked at the foundry further control occurs at the hagerstown chemical laboratory here samples of the castings are prepared for qualitative analysis with the spectrograph any batch can be broken down to its basic elements but control such as these Corrections and changes in the foundry procedure can be made immediately next to shake out when the castings have cooled they are removed from the molds the sand is shaken away and here are the rings still attached to the core the Rings are stripped away [Music] the core will be recycled for use in future melts a series of tumblers remove the excess sand and casting Poly's after this cleaning operation the castings will be subjected to a series of inspections perfect circle uses the process of casting rings of double thickness to ensure even flow the molten metal and uniform molecular composition before they leave the foundry the double rings our side ground and snagged they're split in two identical single rings in one of the 25 machines in this row the castings are ready for the Richmond and Tipton machining plans here after a series of machining operations they will emerge as finished products their first stop is at the disc grinder the rings are picked up electromagnetically and fed into the grinders the sides of the Rings are ground to tolerances within one-half of one thousandth of an inch or precise fit within the piston drill at this stage as an all machining steps the operator checks his work checks made the far more exact tolerances can be performed at the laboratory here electronically any variance in ring width is amplified up to a thousand times enabling the engineers to keep precise control of the disk grinding operation the sides of the Ring have been machined now the face of the Ring which will come in contact with the cylinder wall gets attention this is the form turning operation here the rings which were deliberately cast out of brown are assembled on Ann Arbor and the line [Applause] they will be turned on a lathe which through an intricate cam arrangement follows their elliptical shape next in a milling machine the excess metal which made them out of round is removed to form the piston ring gap again tolerances must be kept within thousands to larger cut would result in compression loss to small a ring out of round with the proper cuts when the ring is compressed as it will be in the cylinder it becomes a perfect circle as an all perfect circle manufacturing and operations testing and inspection of each operation continues and is further checked electronically at the lab these instruments magnifying two and a half to a thousand times will show any abnormal variations the previous operations have machined the side and face of the Rings the next operation is on the duplex bore here the inner surface of the Rings is shaped inside this step is equally as important as the form turning operation as it establishes the radial wall thickness ring load on the cylinder wall and contour of the ring perfect circle production and engineering is constantly introducing new machines into the line here is one of them this machine and many others like it is capable of performing all the ring machining operations with their introduction Perfect Circle has increased ring production to over 200,000 units a day in its Richmond plant the rings have now gone through the entire machining process for non coated rings chrome chromatic or molybdenum coated rings go through additional steps the rings that are to be coated with moly have a groove cut in their face this channel will serve as a retainer for the Molly the grooved rings assembled in a tight collar are placed in the turret which takes them into the spring chamber in strain chamber molybdenum and a special binder material are combined under intense heat as the rings revolve the plasma spray gun coats them with Molly the Molly adheres to the base metal of the ring creating the best heat and flake resistant top rings yet developed for hot running engines later the rings are machined to remove all the Molly except that in the channel the remaining Molly in the channel will cover about 90 percent of the face giving the Molly Plus rings their superior quality Molly plus her premium range which perfect circle sells at regular prices after machining the rings are electronically measured for correct plating thickness [Music] this is a perfect circle chromatic green chromatic is the result of a two-step electroplating process first step is a plating a conventional hard chrome at this stage is like every other chrome ring and in comes the perfect circle exclusive a plating process that puts an overlay of soft chrome over the hard chrome nobody else takes this step it's easy to see the difference between chromatic and chrome the chrome is shiny the chroma is dull when you install a chromatic ring the adult second coating helps the underlying hard chrome seat itself against the cylinder wall in just minutes and that means you get less blow by less oil loss less scuffing and better engine performance during seat in and after all perfect circle rings regardless of what they're made for or with stop in this department for final inspection by sight and touch [Music] the girls are looking for any visual defects and wear rubber surgical gloves to protect the rings from corrosion any ring that's less than perfect is rejected concurrently with this sight and touch inspection samples are given the final checkout at the laboratory for uniformity of outward pressure twist and Bend resistance here an embedment of a ring sample can be micro photographed and an immediate visual check of surface structure density and porosity made physical hardness of the Ring is measured for the temper of the metal will determine its performance and durability here is the hatching ground for new ring designs and improved ring materials where new concepts are worked out tested and analyzed for example in the coatings research lab this plasma spray a small-scale version of the production operation was the proving ground for Mali plus these final quality controlled tests and inspections with all those made along the production line actually take almost 1/4 of the direct labor dollars that it cost to produce the rings that's how highly perfect circle regards quality control next door to the research lab is perfect circle's engine test laboratory the first test of new concepts and the most severe test of production rings are conducted here engineers test perfect circle rings in every type of engine from diesels to compact and heavy-duty power plants performance stress and endurance that might be encountered by an engine in a lifetime of operation can be duplicated and programmed in these tests with the engines running under controlled conditions exactly as they would in service it's unlikely you'll ever drive a car wide open for hours without let-up that's what's being duplicated here notice the Redhawk manifold this engine is running well in excess of its rated rpm yet the Rings can withstand a thousand straight hours of this treatment here's a stranger in a piston ring laboratory the Wankel rotary engine perfect circle is already in limited production on rotary engine seals another example of the engineering progressiveness that continues here without let-up other companies make pissin rain but only first circle takes the extra steps first nobody else makes chromatic ring the chromatic plating second step it gives you a hard chrome ring that seats fast and won't scuff second only perfect circle uses a mildly plus plating process a couple of others use a similar process but only for their highest price rings third and my most lasting impression is how first circle goes out of its way to make sure does every ring is Right first particular job you saw a few of the many tests and inspections that ever ring undergoes the engineers asked the engine what it needs then they experiment and test until they have ring materials and types that prove out like chromatic and Molly plus the production line checks and tests that follow offer product uniformity they show you that the Rings will do what they're supposed to do now we know what's behind that perfect circle promise of the ring that's right for every engine and why we can depend on perfect circle for the right ring whether we're working on a car like my racer a family car or a truck here are these steps all good mechanics take to make sure these right rings do their job having checked the ring end gap in the cylinder check to be sure the piston grooves are free of all foreign matter all parts must be cleaned then install the oil ring spacer [Music] next install the rails [Music] and the two compression rings [Music] check ringside clearance to make sure it does not exceed specifications [Music] next oil the Rings Pistons rod bearings and cylinder bore [Music] and slide a ring compressor over the piston tightened to compress the rings now cover the rod bolts with hose so you won't scratch the cylinder bore or Mar the crankshaft during installation and slip the piston into the cylinder the final steps are to attach the rods to the crankshaft installed the pan and the head actually a range job isn't a major operation almost any service man can make a good profit on engine work you probably have most of the equipment already the most important thing is using right rings for the engine and that means perfect circles [Music] perfect circle piston rings another dana product [Music] [Music]