TRIBOLOGY

What is Tribology?
Tribology is the science and technology of controlling friction and wear. Most
mechanical equipment is subject to damage by wear or wastes energy by frictional
dissipation
Tribology

Friction

wear/lubrication

Friction
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Frictional force is directly proportional to the applied load.

Frictional force is independent of the total area of contact between two
surfaces.
Frictional force is independent of the velocity of motion.

What is the best solution to the problem of carrying load across the interface with
acceptable friction and wear?
Surface Interactions
When two surfaces are loaded together they can adhere over some part of the contact and
this adhesion is therefore one form of surface interaction causing friction.
If no adhesion takes place then the only alternative interaction which results in a
resistance to motion is one in which material must be deformed and displaced to
accommodate the relative motion.
One possible interaction is asperity interlocking.

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Contact Mechanics
Engineering machinery relies on the integrity of components with interacting surfaces
such as gears, bearings or cams. Loads are often supported on a small surface area of the
component. Contact pressures and stresses therefore tend to be high. The engineer
needs to design components to withstand these high contact stresses.

Wear
Wear has been defined as either mass or volume of material, removed or displaced from a
body which is repeatedly stressed in mechanical contact with another body or bodies.
Wear, in most instances, is undesirable, leading to increased clearances between moving
components, increased mechanical loading and may be even fatigue failure. In grinding
and polishing process, however, high wear rates are desirable and small amounts of wear
are often welcome in the running in of some types of machinery.

Mild abrasive wear

Many plastics materials are filled with hard particles such as glass fibres or minerals
which cause more or less severe abrasive wear of all parts with which they come into
contact. A properly chosen wear resistant coating can reduce or eliminate this type of
wear. For mild abrasive wear, ion implantation is also an efficient treatment and can be
considered especially for very small parts.
Severe abrasive wear
For protection against more severe abrasion, TiAIN, which is very hard, would normally
be chosen, except in the case of large abrasive particles, where thick CrN or a multiplayer
coating would be preferred. Plasma assisted CVD coatings have the advantage of
penetrating around corners and down in deep and tiny holes.
Corrosion
Frequently, aggressive gases from the hot plastics corrode the plastic injection moulds
locally near the vents.

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Mechanism of Wear: Adhesive, Abrasive, Fatigue, Corrosive, Erosive.

Foaming
Foaming is a phenomenon which can occur in industrial lubrication systems. The risk is
that bubbling oil will be pumped around the system and cause bearing failures. Foaming
problems arise either from faults in the system or through deterioration or contamination
of the oil.

Strategic Elements of a Successful Analysis Program

Most often, users associate an oil analysis program with a systematic early oil or machine
failure, i.e. damage control. While these benefits are helpful and frequently achieved, they
should be regarded as low on the scale of importance compared to the more rewarding
objective of failure avoidance.
Whenever a proactive maintenance strategy is applied, three steps are necessary to insure
that its benefits are achieved.
Selection of Oil Analysis Tests
To be thoroughly effective, a program must encompass three categories of analysis: (1)
fluid properties, (2) fluid contamination, and (3) fluid wear debris.

Interpreting Test Results

Most machines are highly complex, consisting of exotic metallurgy and intricate
mechanisms. The numerous frictional and sealing surfaces usually employ varying
contact dynamics and loads, all sharing a common lubricant. A failure to gain knowledge
about these many internal machine details as a reference base for use in interpreting oil
analysis data may lead to confusion and indecision in response to oil analysis results. A
good approach is to build a three-ring binder with index tabs for each machine type.
Include in this binder photocopied pages from the service and operation manuals plus
other accumulated information. The following are examples of data and information to
include:

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1. Identify types of bearings in use and their metallurgy.

2. Identify input and output shaft speeds/torques.
3. Identify type of gears in use, speeds, and loads.

Determine gear metal hardness

surface treatments, alloying metals.

4. Locate and identify all other frictional surfaces, such as cams, pistons, bushings,
swash-plates, etc. Determine metallurgy of surface treatments.
5. Locate and identify coolers and heat exchangers and type of fluids used.
6. Obtain fluid flow circuit diagrams/schematics.
7. Locate and determine the types of seals in use, both external and internal.
8. Identify possible contacts with process chemicals and types.
9. Record lubricant flow rates, lubricant bulk oil temperatures, bearing drain and inlet
temperatures and oil pressures.
10. Record detailed lubricant specification and compartment capacity.
11. Record filter performance specification and location.

What Particles Mean and Why They Need to be Monitored and Controlled
Contamination can be defined as any unwanted substance or energy that enters or
contacts the oil. Contaminants can come in a great many forms, some are highly
destructive to the oil, its additives, and machine surfaces. It is often over looked as a
source of failure because its impact is usually slow and imperceptible yet, given time, the
damage is analogous to eating the machine up from the inside out. While it is not
practical to attempt to totally eradicate contamination from in-service lubricants, control
of contaminant levels within acceptable limits is accomplishable and vitally important.
Particles, moisture, soot, heat, air glycol, fuel, detergents and process fluids are all
contaminants commonly found in industrial lubricants and hydraulic fluids.
Proactive Maintenance. While the benefits of detecting abnormal machine wear or an
aging lubricant condition are important and frequently achieved with oil analysis
programs, they should be regarded as low on the scale of importance compared to the
more rewarding objective of failure avoidance. This is achieved by treating the causes of
failure, not simply the symptoms. And, it is the foundation of the popular practice known
as proactive maintenance. In fact, the only effective way to obtain simple solutions to
complex machine maintenance problems is through proactive maintenance.

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