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WHY

A variety of oils for the automotive industry is available in the market. These oils have different composition, additives and can operate under different conditions (motion, load, speed and temperature). A method need to be used to prescreen the performance and endurance of these oils under different conditions, which are relevant to the automotive industry.    

WHY

Lubricating greases are used in various industrial fields ranging from food, transportation, aeronautical, construction, mining and steel industry. The aim is to decrease frictional forces and to protect industrial components from wear and/or corrosion damage. Their performance depends on interaction properties like adherence to the substrate, cohesion or consistency, and tackiness. However, up to date there is no established quantitative methodology that can be easily applied to efficiently and accurately evaluate the adhesion and tackiness of a grease.

We have demonstrated the first commercial version of our TAA Tackiness and Adhesion Analyzer last week at the ELGI Fall meetings in Amsterdam.

WHY

During the processing of bricks in the construction industry, clays slurries can adhere (stick) to mechanical components such as mixers, hindering their function. In addition, in the drilling industry severe damage of the drills can be caused by the sticking and swelling (due to water adsorption) of soils onto the drills. A methodology needs to be developed to measure the stickiness of clays/soils on metallic components.     

WHY ? : Abrasion and erosion mechanisms are quite different from each other, and can lead to very different material behaviour.  For instance, a hard and brittle surface may be very resistant to abrasion, but sensitive to erosion under 90° impact. 

HOW ? : Using two separate test systems :

WHY

 One of the most difficult industrial issues related to tribology is the prediction of long term wear or material durability.  In many components and products, materials with or without lubrication are used to reduce wear and maintain functionality of the component.  Required ‘wear life’ may be thousands of hours.  Contrary to the determination of a ‘coefficient of friction’ – which can be done in a few hours, the determination of wear and wear rate under realistic conditions is a long term test. The challenge is twofold : perform low wear rate experiments with many repeats at an economically acceptable cost.  The only way to do this is by a multistation approach (performing many wear experiments simultaneously). 

WHY

One of the main issues in the watch industry is reduce the friction and sticking between moving components. To achieve this, a small quantity of lubricant is added in the contact. However, due to the high expectations of the costumers, the increased lifetime of the watch, the size and geometry of components and contact conditions (loads in the mN range), there is a huge need to develop a tool that can evaluate such lubricating tribo-systems. The main challenge is to perform precision frictional measurements, in conditions that simulate the “actual” application.

WHY

High temperature tribological testing often requires the development of complex mechanical setups, that should meet rigorous standards and specific performance metrics. Thus, the development of a state-of-the-art experimental setup to study the reciprocating sliding behaviour of various bulk and coated materials at temperatures that can reach up to 1000 °C is needed, especially for the evaluation of high temperature materials for aeronautical applications.

WHY

Surgical suture, holding body tissue together after an injury or surgery, is a complex product.  The thread can be surface treated or coated for a number of reasons. One of them is to facilitate the insertion through tissue, the other to hold the knots tightly.  Friction of the suture over skin, is thus important to control.  Measuring skin-suture friction allows improvement of these threads and their surface treatment.

WHY

Polymer based composites are considered as one of the most important engineering materials for naval applications. They can be used in the superstructures, decks, bulkheads, advanced mast systems, propellers, propulsion shafts, rudders, pipes, pumps, valves, machinery and other equipment on large ships. In the majority of these applications these composites are subjected to mechanical loading in a corrosive environment. Thus their performance and/or lifetime is strongly dependent on both of these factors. In this application a methodology was developed to evaluate the effect of the corrosive environment (seawater) on the tribological performance of composite polymers is sliding contacts.  

WHY

In reality, due to a misalignment, vibrations or other reasons high speed pump rotors can come in contact with the stator, leading to a catastrophic failure.  This failure is a result of severe shearing of the contacting surfaces. However, the existing ASTM Galling method (G 196), is performed at very high pressures and very low speeds, and does not simulate the “actual” conditions met at high speeds.