Know-how

Friction, wear, lubrication– bases of tribology

If you have any questions about technical terms or you would like to find out more about the background of REWITEC® technology, please use the table below, in which the Central Hessian company will give you an explanation of contexts and concepts.

Grey staining – a phenomenon to date unexplained

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Grey staining occurs as signs of wear on the surfaces of metallic components, which are permanently under high loading. Gears in gearboxes and sliding camshafts and valve lifters are mainly affected. Damage of this nature only occurs rarely in the gearboxes of motor vehicles, but mainly in industrial equipment like mill drives, rolling mills and wind power plants.

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Pitting – Risk factor for gearbox failure

Pitting in professional circles is called "localised corrosion". Pitting mainly comes from a loss of friction on gears and roller bearings and can be recognised by material eruptions and the formation of micro-cracks on the surface of the rolling elements and their raceway. When viewed with the naked eye, the points have a matt structure.

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Friction, wear, lubrication – bases of nano-tribology

Nano-tribology is a sub-area of tribology. This science or technology describes and examines how two surfaces behave in a relative movement, and what practical processes are involved. Basically it comes down to friction and wear and therefore to the question of how to prevent the wear caused by lubricants or other procedures or at least how to slow it down in the long term. In terms of industry, it involves engines, gearboxes, roller bearings, guides and other movable machine elements. The bases of tribology go right back to the universal genius Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), who in his own lifetime, spent time among other things looking at the design of gears and gearboxes.

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Gears damaged by insufficient scuffing load capacity of the lubricant

At first glance, scuffing load capacity is a strange word. The term is purely of a technical nature and relates to the behaviour of gears in machinery and transmissions, which are under permanently high loads, as well as suitable lubricants to prevent "scuffing" in the long term.

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Roughness on high loaded surfaces

The roughness on surfaces is caused by the processing of different materials during sawing, cutting, punching and other mechanical processes. If you saw a piece of wood to burn it later in the fireplace, the roughness of the interface is basically irrelevant. The function and energy efficiency of the wood - it is just supposed to burn and provide heat - is not affected. It is a completely different story with components like gear wheels, gears or roller bearings where machine parts are permanently in motion and are continuously in surface contact.

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