Tribology: the science and technology of contacting interfaces

The science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion, and the practical problems associated with them.

This is the definition of the term tribology.

In straightforward terms, tribology concerns surfaces, contact, friction, wear and lubrication. It investigates friction and wear at the interface between two bodies and develops technologies to control these phenomena.

Tribology extends across the industrial fields that support modern society. Its applications also reach medicine, including human joints; natural phenomena, including earthquakes and landslides; and everyday life.

Physicist Wolfgang Pauli remarked, 'God made the bulk; the devil invented the surface.' Understanding contact between surfaces and controlling friction and wear requires physics, chemistry, materials science, elastoplasticity, fracture mechanics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, medicine and biology, together with practical knowledge of the application. Tribology is therefore both a foundational technology and an interdisciplinary field.

Tribology is essential for those working with machines. Future machine design requires a sound understanding of its significance and importance.

Controlling friction and wear at interfaces is key to improving machine reliability and durability, and to enabling technologies that were previously impractical.

From large space stations to tiny micromachines, machine reliability, durability, energy and cost losses, and performance limits are often governed by friction and wear at the many moving contacts within the machine.

Designing machines that conserve resources and energy, deliver high reliability and durability, and provide new functions and performance requires the design of surfaces and contacting interfaces alongside the conventional design of materials and shapes. Tribology provides the science and technology for this approach.