Citation
Taylor, J. (2000), "Comment and opinion", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 52 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2000.01852daa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2000, MCB UP Limited
Comment and opinion
In this issue we are fortunate to have examples of work in many different areas of lubrication and tribology.
The presentation given recently by Professor Talke at "Tribology 2000 Plus" at Esslingen represents a very interesting summary of the tribological problems associated with tape and disk systems found in computers. For many of us this will be a new area of interest and will certainly make us think next time we turn on our computer and hear the hard drive operating!
Fuel economy is always an issue being addressed both in the industrial and academic research establishments. The Ethyl Petroleum Additives paper presented at Esslingen will provoke some reaction amongst those engaged on similar work.
Professor Kuhn provides the first stage in an analysis of the asperity to asperity contact taking into account the density distribution in the grease film. This is important in the estimation of the energy loss due to the friction involved in shearing the film.
Professor Mucino and colleagues at West Virginia University present an extension of Booker's "Mobility Method" to cover a non-rotating, sliding cylinder in a parallel track. They are able to show that hydrodynamic behaviour can be described by using the "Mobility Method", thereby speeding up considerably the analytical process.
The final paper in this issue is another previously presented at Esslingen and represents work done at Ben-Gurion University in Israel by Isaac Garbar and colleagues. They report on work done on studying the surface alloying of metals in tribological contact and how these alloys can be modified by the addition of various chemical elements to the lubricant.
John Taylor