The paper reviews the historical development of tribology as a discipline in India. Specific developments in industry, academic institutions and government research laboratories as well as in strategic sectors such as defense, space and atomic energy are reviewed. The country specific and general characters of these developments are discussed. Institutional development is viewed in isolation as well as in relation to other institutions. It is concluded that a new contract needs to be worked out between industry and academia which guarantees development of new and fundamental knowledge while ensuring solution of technological problems which provides competitive edge to industry.

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In the past three decades Korea has developed into a highly industrial nation, recording an annual growth rate of more than 8 percent. The rapid growth in Korean economy was possible through technological developments and innovations that spread across a wide spectrum of industries. In this paper, selected leading Korean industries are reviewed with respect to their contributions to the domestic and global markets. Particularly, the scope and impact of tribology in transportation and electronics industries are discussed. Also, a perspective of how tribology is expected to play a role in the future technologies of Korea is presented. Finally, some thoughts on issues to be addressed to advance the state of tribology in the industry are provided.

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The Chinese industries are facing tough international competition, huge environmental pressure, government requirement for improved efficiency and lower emissions from the tribological and lubricating systems and rapid technological developments. A brief review on industrial tribology progress in China was outlined in this paper. The special characteristics of industrial tribology, the problem and the challenges in Chinese industrial tribology were discussed. At last, our insights and perspectives on future trends in industrial tribology in China will also be reviewed.

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Australia is a country where the ancient culture of the Aborigines coexists with a modern culture in a young future-orientated multicultural society. Subconsciously, perhaps, this immersion in a situation where ancient problems require innovative new solutions has stirred the creativity and imagination of many Australian researchers in tribology. When compared with other countries of a similar population size, the Australian contribution to tribology is substantial. In this paper major achievements of Australian tribologists are presented.

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While environmental and energy issues are increasingly attracting global attention, the world is heading towards a sustainable society in which limited resources are used effectively. In these circumstances, the Toyota group is aiming for the realization of “Zeronize”, a term coined to represent the minimizing of negative impacts, and “Maximize”, meaning to maximize positive impacts. Our current, and future, tribological innovation of vehicle and process technology to realize these will be described in this report.

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We examined the pull-off and friction forces between an atomic force microscope (AFM) probe and submicron-scale asperities covered with Langmuir Blodgett (LB) films. First, we used a focused ion beam to produce several kinds of asperity arrays on two silicon substrates. The average radius of curvature was 95 to 800 nm, depending on the asperity array. An LB film of stearic acid (C₁₇H₃₅COOH) or fluoro-carboxylic acid (C₆F₁₃C₁₁H₂₂COOH) was deposited on each substrate. The friction force was measured at each asperity array under a zero applied load. The pull-off force was measured at each asperity array and also at controlled relative humidities of 3 to 73%. The results showed that the pull-off and friction forces were almost proportional to the radius of the curvature of the asperity peak with both stearic acid and fluoro-carboxylic acid LB films. The gradient of the friction force against the pull-off force, which corresponded to the friction coefficient, was 0.021 and 0.14 for the stearic acid and fluoro-carboxylic acid respectively. The pull-off force increased with higher relative humidity on the fluoro-carboxylic acid. We concluded that differences in the pull-off and friction forces between the two kinds of LB films were mainly caused by differences in the stiffness of the LB film.

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Lubricants for metalworking applications make extensive use of water-soluble additives to reduce friction and wear. In order to do such task, these additives must form a lubricating film that separates the contact surfaces thus imparting good surface finish to the worked parts. This paper presents a study on the tribological performance of aqueous solutions of rosin acids. Tests were carried out on a pin-on-disk tribometer for a steel-aluminum contact while keeping load, entrainment speed, sliding distance, temperature and concentration of the additive constant to study the lubrication effect of the additive-containing solutions. Chemical analysis of the wear track indicates the in-contact formation of an organic film caused by the additive interaction and aluminium surface. A substantial friction and wear reduction is observed.

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Two additive free calcium stearate greases have been developed for the requirements of lubrication in automotive components. Two compositions of calcium stearate greases have been prepared by adding 12% and 15% by weight calcium stearate soap in the 450-neutral base oil. Greases have been prepared using the dry technology. The effects of the compositions of calcium stearate soap on the tribological properties of greases have been investigated with the aid of four-ball tester, SRV-Optimol tester, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The tribological properties of the additive free greases have been compared with similar application intended commercially available greases containing additives. The structure examinations (before and after weld tests on four ball tester) of the additive free calcium stearate greases have been done using TEM. The FTIR analyses of both synthesized additive free greases have been carried out to study the degradation in greases after weld tests on four-ball tester. It has been observed based on the present investigations that the additive free calcium stearate greases show comparable tribological behavior with commercial greases containing additives.

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A new tribo-tester was developed by modification of the “Falex Pin & Vee-block” type tribo-test (ASTM D 3233). The advantages of the present method are (1) specimen made of various materials is easily available and (2) the specimen is ready to surface analysis without any processing after the tribo-test. Utilities of the new tribo-test were demonstrated by comparing additive-material compatibility. The tribological properties of aluminum/aluminum contact were improved by phosphorus containing additives, whereas those of copper/copper contact were improved by sulfur containing additives. These results were well explained by tribo-chemistry based on the results of XPS analysis.

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