Austrian Center of Competence for Tribology

Austrian Center of Competence for Tribology
01.07.2014
Österreichisches Kompetenzzentrum für Tribologie
XTribology – proposal for extension of COMET funding period (2015 – 2020) submitted
The COMET K2 Centre of Excellence for Tribology has been established at the Wiener
Neustadt “Technopole” and developed during the first funding period (April 2010 – March
2015) so far according the proposed programme. Close collaborations with the Vienna
University of Technology as main scientific partner and the tribology group of the Kind-Center
V-Research as well as with a number of international scientific partners, selected in view of
thematic synergies, are important cornerstones. The centre is fully supported by the
provinces of Niederösterreich, Vorarlberg and Wien, as well as by 78 industrial partners and
30 scientific partners actively integrated in the research projects. The entry of a high number
of new national and international company partners shows the importance of tribology for the
economy and the success of the centre. The collaboration with renowned international
scientific partners and the research results have led to a step by step increase in the
internationalisation and international visibility. In January 2012 the centre doubled the rented
office and laboratory space at the “Technologie- und Forschungszentrum (TFZ)” Wiener
Neustadt to approx. 4200 m².
The “XTribology Core Document” reporting on the first funding period and presenting the
plans for the intended research programme for the second funding period (01.04.2015 to
31.03.202) has been submitted to the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) on time.
The “Letters of Commitment” provided by industrial and scientific partners would have
justified even a higher total budget than the intended feasible € 54 mn.
Based on the understanding of the fundamentals of tribology as a highly interdisciplinary field
integrating physics, chemistry, material science, mechanics, electronics and information
technology, the project topics and goals as well as the research activity will be concentrated
on four areas with – compared to the first funding period – slightly modified main topics:
Area 1: Lubricants & Interface Mechanisms
Area 2: Wear Processes & Protection
Area 3: Friction Surface Phenomena & Tribodiagnostics
Area 4: Computation & Experimental Simulation
The overall aim and ideal for engineering tribology and hence of the research activities
behind it can be summarised as:
Friction only when and where and as much as necessary, and never wear!
The XTribology research work in the 2nd funding period considers the complete loop related
to the existence (life cycle) of a tribosystem, not only comprising the tribologically stressed
components, especially their production, use, maintenance and recycling. For this reason,
the planned research programme offers a broad variety of marketable solutions for products
and technologies, both for science and industry, and provides an added value compared to
singular research activities. Besides improvement of product and processes reliability, a clear
benefit in terms of cost saving will be achieved.
The implementation of the new research programme can be commenced as soon as there
will be a positive decision on the XTribology-2 proposal, which – in case – could be
communicated already in October 2014.

Download Report