Two hundreds and sixty years have passed since the start of Industrial Revolution, and about forty years have passed since the introduction of the word of Tribology.
We are now at the time of starting new industrial revolution for the age of no resources reserves.

It is always important to learn the history of the facing subject for having a clear view of paradigm shift in the near future and making up an image of a new change.

An image of new industrial society in 21st century and that of tribology for contributing to the society will be generated through the learning and discussion in this session.


Organizer
Koji Kato

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The history of rolling bearings and their life calculation standards are discussed in this paper.

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It is inspiring to discover technology related to tribology throughout the history of mankind. This paper describes sketches produced by da Vinci in the 15th century corresponding to modern bearings and notable tribological achievements in Japan from ancient times. Explained herein are a project to construct bearing models based on da Vinci’s sketches, a fire-making device used in Japan since ancient times, shura sleds that were widely used in Japan, investigations of the revolving stage mechanisms of Japan’s oldest surviving theater, and ingenious automated doll devices of Japan’s Edo period that paved the way to the creation of modern humanoid robots. Lastly, this paper touches on how these technologies led to the development of Japan’s bearing industry.

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Despite a significant increase in the number of lubrication studies of articualr cartilage and synovial joints in recent times, the early development of lubrication concepts is particularly important and has played an important role in the understanding of the complex lubrication mechanism in these natural bearings. The majority of the important lubrication concepts were developed before 1970s. The aim of this paper is to present a record of early major lubrication concepts developed for natural synovial joints up to the 1970s; to present a few selected recent studies to interpret the results and contradictions and to highlight the importance of a systematical approach and reinforce the concept of the multi-mode lubrication. Some recently proposed, unique lubrication mechanisms for the natural synovial joints are also discussed.

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There are a lot of tribological technologies in the sledge and the carriage. The origin of the sledge and the carriage can be seen in the Sumerian pictographic script excavated from the temple of Inanna in Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq). Sledges gradually evolved over time, from sledges that moved on rollers, to more advanced carriages with wheel such as war chariots, two-wheeled carts and four-wheeled wagons. In this paper, the Japanese sledges and Chinese chariots in ancient Northeast Asia are discussed from a viewpoint of the history of tribology. In ancient Japan, heavy items such as giant trees or stones were transported by the Shura which is a Y-shaped or a V-shaped wooden sledge. The coefficient of rolling friction was obtained by a transport experiment using a manufactured Shura. In ancient China, various types of ancient Chinese chariots with one axle and two wheels were excavated at several archaeological sites. The world's first cast iron products were made in ancient China around 500 B.C. The ancient Chinese chariots had been developed by using cast iron axle bearings. It can be seen from these results that excellent tribological technology existed in ancient Japanese sledges and ancient Chinese chariots.

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