Editorial

Citation

Taylor, J. (2004), "Editorial", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 56 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2004.01856eaa.001

Editorial

We have the usual five examples of current tribology work in this issue.

The increasing importance of glass-fibre- reinforced plastics is highlighted in the paper presented by J. Paulo Davim and Francisco Mata. In common with metals the surface roughness of components has a major effect on their performance. These researchers have been looking at how different cutting parameters affect the surface.

Roman Kaczyn´ski from Poland and Leongard I. Pogodaev from Russia have been working together to develop a mathematical model that can be used to look at wear mechanisms in materials and coatings.

Hiroki Endo and Etsuo Marui at Gifu University in Japan have been working with plastics to learn more of their frictional and wear properties.

A group of workers from Turkey have combined to present their work on analysing the lubrication of axial piston pump slippers using neural network techniques.

Finally, in this issue we have a paper describing work carried out by researchers at Nanya Institute of Technology in Republic of China who have been analysing magneto-hydrodynamic squeeze films.

Within this group of papers, we have work of a highly theoretical nature and that of more immediate practical value. The problem with tribology has always been that the theory follows on many years after the practical knowledge. In other words, we know that a particular lubricant formulation will solve a problem but we often don't know why!

Are our colleagues in industry always aware of the basic research being carried out around the world? It is not obvious to your editor that the technical knowledge we have is really getting to practical areas and improving our treatment of basic lubrication problems.

What do you think?

John Taylor