History of Tribology in Finland 1881–2023 and the Finnish Society for Tribology 1977-2023

Kenneth Holmberg*, Helena Ronkainen, Peter Andersson, Janne Juoksukangas, Kati Valtonen, Arto Lehtovaara, Matti Säynätjoki, Pekka Salonen, Heikki Sundquist

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientific

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

The field of Tribology defined as the “science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion, that is friction, lubrication and wear” was introduced to the scientific community in a UK governmental report 1966. UK experts and scientists introduced this new approach to solve industrial problems in engineering design, material technology and lubricant chemistry to Finnish colleagues in the late 1970s. The foundation of the Finnish Society for Tribology 1977 boosted academic and technological activities in the area. Tribology as a topic was introduced in the Finnish universities. Investments were made in collaborative research activities with universities, research centers and industry involved. The international collaboration expanded and the Finnish tribologists initiated and started the 1st NORDTRIB regional tribology conference series in Tampere 1984 and hosted the worldwide 5th EUROTRIB International Tribology Congress in Helsinki 1989. The Finnish Journal of Tribology was established 1982. Large joint research activities were generated especially with the Nordic and European countries, Soviet Union and China. Internationally recognized top research groups were initiated and flourished in Tampere and Helsinki on the topics of abrasive, slurry-erosion and fretting wear; engineering ceramics; thin coating tribology; biotribology; computational modelling in tribology; and calculations on global economic and environmental impact of tribology.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4-38
JournalTribologia
Volume40
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
MoE publication typeB1 Article in a scientific magazine

Funding

The infrastructure of Tampere Wear Center was originally funded by European Regional Development Fund, industry, and Tampere University of Technology. During 2007, almost one million euros was expended for characterization and wear testing facilities, such as ultra high-resolution field emission scanning electron microscope (UHR FEG-SEM), high speed video systems, versatile pin-on-disk / ball-on-disk tribometer, crushing pin-on-disk, uniaxial crusher, ball-on-block, and biomaterial crusher. After that, the development and designing of new wear testing devices has been constantly going on. The latest systems are the high velocity particle impactor, dual pivoted jaw crusher, impeller-tumbler, high -speed slurry-pot type erosion tester, and pulse jet erosion tester. In 2022, Academy of Finland funded Hub for Hydrogen-Materials Interaction Research Infrastructures - H2MIRI and during that project for example a new multipurpose tribometer will be part of the TWC infrastructure.

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