21st International Colloquium Tribology

The 21st International Colloquium Tribology – Automotive and Industrial Lubrication took place from 9 - 11 of January 2018 at the Technische Akademie Esslingen (TAE).
The conference was initiated 42 years ago by Prof. Wilfried Bartz and was intended to be a professional exchange of a small group of tribologists. From the beginning in 1976 the colloquium attracted more than 300 participants and has ever since evolved to the biggest tribology convention in Europe.

This year an estimated amount of 550 participants made the journey to Ostfildern. During 12 plenary sessions and 8 parallel meetings with approximately 200 lectures, they used the opportunity to receive the latest information about the technology in tribology research and development in the automotive and industrial methods of engineering. To highlight the significance a meeting of this size has for the venue in Ostfildern they were greeted by the Lord Mayor of the city Christof Bolay. After a short welcoming speech which was held by Hans-Joachim Mesenholl, representing the managing board of the TAE, and Prof. Wilfried Bartz as the honorary chairman, Dr. Wincierz chairman of GfT held a remembrance speech in honor of the late Prof. Peter Jost, the eponym of the field of tribology.

It is vital that the convention meets the current challenges posed by the automotive sector. This was expressed by the plenary sessions held on the first day. The center of the lectures solely focused on the new technologies such as e-mobility, alternative fuels and digitalization.
As in previous years the traditional lubricant topics around engine oils, greases and cooling lubricants were mostly represented in the lecture program. Further focal points were the lubricants for the gearing mechanism, the tribology of plastics and the equipment condition monitoring.
In the closing event the subject of e-mobility was incorporated once again. Thorsten Brandenburg from the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe demonstrated that contrary to the general opinion about a shortage of resources for batteries to maintain a worldwide occurrence of  e-mobiles, there are sufficient resources. Also the manufacturing capacity for cobalt, lithium, nickel and graphite is adequate. However the increased demand will result in a rapid rise of the prices for raw materials.
At the end there was a contribution of the GfT research group ‘young tribologists’ to reveal a staffing perspective in the field of tribology. Five young engineers visualized in an animated lecture several projects of their research group and pointed out that tribology is in good hands in the future.

Some impressions of the conference: