Intelligent Open Test Bed for Materials Tribological Characterisation Services

Materials in motion inevitably encounter other materials. Whether it is a solid moving through a liquid or gas or vice versa, the interacting surfaces and their behaviours are critical to the development of new products. Understanding and predicting what happens with virtually limitless combinations of materials under virtually limitless operating conditions requires extensive testing. European industries of all sizes will soon have access to the world's first open test bed for characterisation of materials and their interacting surfaces when in relative motion (tribology) thanks to the EU-funded i-TRIBOMAT project. The test bed will include test equipment, modelling and analytical tools, experimental design support and online monitoring capabilities. An IT platform will enhance data mining and sharing. Project outcomes could spur an explosion in innovation and rapid realisation of new products, boosting the European economy at this critical time.