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Welcome to the UK Tribology website

UK Tribology is a multi-institution collaboration designed to raise awareness of the subject and application of tribology; the study of interacting surfaces in relative motion or, in layman's terms: friction, wear and lubrication. If you're wondering how this effects you, please read on...

Our website is designed to act as a gateway to the latest developments and events relating to tribology in the UK, so that engineers and technical experts, business leaders and politicians, as well as the general public are made aware of just how important tribology is to all of us.  If you'd like to learn more about our aims and objectives, you can read more about us.

(This website is still being constructed, so please bear with us while we add content.  If you encounter any problems, please contact us to let us know so that we can resolve any issues.  Thanks, UKT Web Team) 

Recent news

EPSRC - "Willetts announces £350 million for PhD training in over 70 new centres"

72 new Centres for Doctoral Training have today been approved by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, with £350 million of investment and connected to over 1000 industrial and academic partners. 24 UK universities are sharing this investment; the largest ever in postgraduate research in the UK.

22 November 2013

The Glasgow Science Centre tower - (almost) the first fully rotating tower in the world

The tower of the Glasgow Science Centre, a 127m tall steel and glass construction, held the Guiness World Record for the "tallest fully rotating tower" when it was first opened in 2001. However, since then it has been plagued by problems with the mechanism allowing the tower to rotate - a unique thrust bearing. The BBC has been reporting on its progress this year.

06 November 2013

phys.org - "Workers dragged Forbidden City stones along roads of artificial ice"

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology in Beijing have revealed that, in the 15th and 16th Centuries, the Chinese used artifical roads of ice to help transport the stones used to build China's Forbidden City.  This demonstrates an advanced understanding of friction and lubrication for the time.

05 November 2013

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Upcoming events

First National Tribology Conference: Future Cities and Mobility

Thursday, 21 February 2019
London
This first national tribology conference organised by five professional bodies (IoP, IET, IOM3, IMechE and RSC) is truly multidisciplinary and aims to explore the tribological challenges of future cities and mobility and discus existing and future tribological solutions to enable this vision to be realised and for UK companies to innovate and lead the world through informed design.

New Challenges in Tribology 2019

Wednesday, 27 March 2019 - Thursday, 28 March 2019
Birmingham
A two-day meeting exploring challenges the tribology community face in 2019 organised the the Institution of Engineering Technology

See all events