A Tribology Casebook

Citation

Wilson, B. (1998), "A Tribology Casebook", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 50 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.1998.01850eae.004

A Tribology Casebook

A Tribology Casebook

J.D. Summers-SmithMechanical Engineering PublicationsLondon1997224 pp.ISBN 1 86058 041 6 (hard cover)£49.00 (+10 per cent for overseas customers)

Keyword: Tribology

Dr Summers-Smith is probably the foremost industrial tribologist of the past 50 years. He is also an excellent communicator, making his publications essential and rewarding reading for all interested in the subject. Dr Summers-Smith trained as a physicist and acted as Lubricant Advisor and later Tribology Advisor to the UK's largest chemical company, ICI, for over 30 years. This career has been followed by 15 years in consultancy. His success as a trouble-shooter and tribological design advisor for manufacturing industry was based on his ability to identify fundamental principles and apply them to practical problems by drawing on his knowledge and vast experience.

The author's technical books (he also writes on ornithology), An Introduction to Tribology in Industry, published in 1969 and An Introductory Guide to Industrial Tribology, published in 1994 were "aimed at giving the engineer in industry a 'feel' for the subject, while at the same time providing sufficient practical information to meet his day-to-day needs". His latest work builds on these by providing design "Guidance Charts" and tables compiled on data from industry and a wealth of diverse examples drawn from a lifetime's involvement in industrial tribology. The case studies are mainly from the chemical process industry.

Contents

Hundreds of examples from the field are summarised under 24 main headings and 97 subheadings. They cover climatic effects, fires and explosions, couplings, and even skulduggery as well as examples of plain and rolling element bearings, seals, couplings, lubricants and lubrication systems, wear and corrosion. The two largest sections are on problems with lubricant additives and on the damage caused by rotor vibration. Ingenious failure analysis techniques have been one of the author's strengths. These are inferred throughout the book and four are described in their own section. Noteworthy is the detailed presentation of the information which can be gleaned from x-ray diffraction analysis in detecting one or more of the eight oxides of iron in sludge or on damaged components. There is also the use of the Weibull cumulative distribution function that Dr Summers-Smith has adopted as an effective aid to component failure analysis. The technique is illustrated applied to mechanical seals and air compressor thrust bearing failures.

The author's controversial views on lubricant additives arise from his suffering "more sleepless nights from additive-induced incidents than any other identifiable tribological factor". Numerous cases of oil additives causing problems in chemical environments are provided. These include corrosion of white metal, silver and bronze plain bearings; deposits formed on seals; reduced oxidative stability and conductivity of oils; formation of sludges of degraded oil additive causing blockages of corrosion; and accelerated biodegradation. The book does not deal with automotive engine lubrication but the author might have mentioned "black sludge" as an example of an automotive engine oil additive incompatibility problem of the 1980s. As long ago as 1956 the author had solved a worm gearbox lubrication overheating problem by using a polyglycol as the lubricant. This was before polyglycols were being marketed for this purpose. The book is crammed full of similar insights into how a well-informed tribologist saved his company a great deal of time and money, as well as revealing some embarrassing moments.

Conclusion

The book is written with humour and candour, drawing morals and making recommendations and criticisms where appropriate. No one reading it could complain that engineering and industrial tribology in particular is boring. At a very reasonable price of £49.00 it should prove a best seller. Criticisms are of the "Readers Digest" approach that leaves the reader wishing for more details of particular cases and the feeling that there were many revealing case studies from outside the chemical industry which had to be left out on the grounds of client confidentiality.

Bill Wilson