Micro Tribology Laboratory

Room E11d, Bd. Muncii 103-105, UTCN. Houses precision pin-on-disc tribometers, profilometry, hardness testing, thermovision and 3D printing for micro-scale and advanced tribological studies.

Oils, additives, nanoparticles.

Friction and wear behavior of fiber-reinforced composite materials.

Tribology of materials for space applications in harsh environments (MEMS).

Tribological investigations at micro and nano scale.

Tribology of dental and biomedical materials.

Characterization of thin films under tribological conditions.

Triboinformatics and AI solutions for wear prediction.

Tribology in marine and corrosive environments (OTC).

The world standard for measuring friction, wear and lubrication, with over 1,000 systems installed worldwide. Two symmetrically-designed friction force sensors eliminate thermal drift over long tests. Supports rotating, linear reciprocating and rotary reciprocating motion, with varied contact geometries (ball, pin, plane). Integrated temperature/humidity sensors record environmental conditions in real time. "Modelization" software simulates Hertzian stress/strain distribution in the contact. Compliant with ASTM G99 and ASTM G133. Integrated profilometry measures wear volume and wear-track profile directly after the test, without removing the sample.

Pin-on-disc tribometer for systematic friction and wear characterization under dry or lubricated conditions. Determines the coefficient of friction and specific wear rate for material pairs — metals, polymers, ceramics, fiber-reinforced composites. Main applications: characterization of glass, basalt and carbon fiber-reinforced composites, industrial lubricant testing, and thin-film evaluation under controlled sliding.

Modified version of the TM 260.3, adapted to simulate contact conditions in gear pairs. Highlights sliding in tooth-flank contact, measures local friction coefficient, and analyzes lubricant/surface-treatment tribological behavior under gear-specific kinematics. Useful for optimizing gear lubricants and surface treatments for mechanical transmissions.

Used for visual inspection of samples before and after tribological tests: wear-track morphology analysis, identification of dominant wear mechanisms (adhesive, abrasive, contact fatigue, tribochemical), wear scar diameter measurement, and photographic documentation. An essential complement to the tribometers.

Precision analytical balance for gravimetric wear determination: weighing samples before/after tribological tests enables calculation of mass loss and, via material density, wear volume and specific wear rate (mm³/N·m). A direct method, independent of wear-track geometry, per ASTM G99 and ISO 20808.

Goniometer-type equipment measuring the contact angle of a lubricant droplet on the sample surface — reflecting wettability: the smaller the angle, the better the lubricant spreads, indicating good film-forming capacity. Enables comparative evaluation of lubricants (base oils, additised oils, nanoparticle formulations) on metallic, polymeric or ceramic surfaces, and the effect of roughness/surface treatments on wetting.

Digital Rockwell hardness tester with dead-weight loading for higher accuracy than hydraulic-damper systems. Tests all standard and superficial Rockwell scales. Automatic force-cycle start/brake; dwell time adjustable 1–99 s. Backlit LCD with direct hardness readout, scale conversions and OK/NG judgment. Per ISO 6508 / ASTM E18. Used to characterize hardness of composites, metals and coating films.

Portable, separable-type roughness tester with inductive probe and diamond tip (5 μm radius / 90°). Measures 22 roughness parameters per ISO/DIN/ANSI/JIS (Ra, Rz, Rq, Rt, Rk, Rsm, and others). Ra resolution: 0.001 μm; measuring force: 4 mN. USB/Bluetooth connectivity, Excel export, 100-result memory. Used systematically before and after tribological tests.

Compact thermal camera, 160×120 px infrared resolution (19,200 measurement points), sensitivity < 0.1°C at 30°C. Range: −20°C to +250°C, accuracy ±2%/±2°C. Real-time radiometric video streaming and JPEG storage (>1,000 images). Used to map temperature distribution in tribological contacts during friction/wear tests, identifying local overheating and the effect of lubrication regime on contact temperature.

Rapid prototyping via additive manufacturing, used to design and produce test parts, sample-fixturing devices, adapters and custom experimental configurations for the lab's tribometers — adapting quickly to non-standard sample geometries without conventional machining costs.

Integrated tribomechanical characterization of fiber-reinforced composites (glass, basalt, carbon) via the TM 260.3, under dry sliding and boundary lubrication.

Advanced statistical methods (ANOVA, ELECTRE multi-criteria decision method) applied to composite tribological data for optimal material selection.

Thermal characterization of tribological contacts via the FLIR E30 thermovision camera, correlated with lubrication regime and wear rate.

The modified TM 260.3 tribometer for simulating gear contact conditions — experimentally validated on real mechanical transmissions.

Best Application Paper Award, MARSS 2023, Abu Dhabi, UAE — international recognition for the laboratory's research.