Time for tribology

摘要

As the UK strives to rebalance its economy in favour of manufacturing, Brian Tinham talks to Or Peter Jost about the still unfulfilled roles for tribological science and technology. The full and proper application of tribology - the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion -would save the nation some 1.1% of NDP (net domestic product, which is gross domestic product minus capital equipment depreciation), equating to a staggering ￡8-10 billion. So says Dr Peter Jost (92), widely credited as the founding father of this key inter-disciplinary subject 60 years ago, and now the recipient of one of the Royal Academy of Engineering's top accolades - the Sustained Achievement Award, which he adds to a long list of honours. In its citation, the Royal Academy makes the point that what might appear to be mundane issues around friction and lubrication have long since been revealed to have engineering implications certainly throughout industry, but also way beyond - ranging from medicine and dentistry to nanotechnology. Indeed, it states that tribology is central to managing the costly effects of friction and wear, a point given scale by independent studies in Germany, the USA, Canada, China, the UK and Japan, which suggest that by investing in tribology each could expect to save up to 1.4% of GDP.