Tribology

Expertise in Tribology

Wear and friction are complex phenomenas depending on very various parameters like temperature, roughness, speed, loads, geometrical considerations… Our approach is to chose the right scale to be focused on the paramaters which have an influence. Lab scale is often not representative but full scale is over representative integrating to many parameters which disturb analyse and comprehension.

Most of the Tribology team customer are from automotive, aerospace and energy industry but HEF R&D has also worked for consumer goods or healthcare companies

Automotive

To ensure that heavy truck engines will last the requested lifetime, a particularly rugged design for the axle/roller/cam system is necessary. HEF R&D helped understanding of, by calculation and experiments, the different lubrication and friction regimes we can observe in this part of the rocker arm.

Aerospace

Fretting is a wear phenomena caused by low clearance vibrations. Aerospace industry, among others, is concerned by this problem.
HEF R&D developed specific test benches for an aircraft engine maker in order to enable to understand the underlying phenomena and develop future solutions in terms of materials and surface treatments.

Energy

A power plant manufacturer wanted to optimize its material selection guidelines, especially in terms of the friction coefficient on the bearings in hydroelectric turbines. HEF R&D tested all the materials on a test bench to provide the engineering department with reliable dimensioning data.

Healthcare

HEF R&D is helping the CARMAT company in the development of an artificial implantable and autonomic heart. HEF R&D’s objective is to optimize the tribologic behavior of this system to guarantee its reliability. This partnership led to the implementation of a dedicated laboratory in HEF R&D.