Tribology

Tribology Laboratory - University of Pretoria

The tribology group is headed by Professor Philip de Vaal and was started in 1987 with support from ESKOM, Anglo-American and ISCOR. The activities in the lab focus on lubricant performance evaluation, which includes analysis of greases, oils and diesels. More recent industrial problems with diesel quality in South Africa motivated research in the field of diesel lubricity and biodiesel, sponsored by Sasol.

The Tribology Lab not only functions as a academic research lab, but also as an evaluation lab for industry. Several companies use the Tribology Lab for failure analysis and quality control.

Equipment

The following lubrication bench tests are available in the Tribology Lab.

FZG Machine Documentation for projects done on this machine can be found here

SRV Machine Documentation for projects done on this machine can be found here

BICERI Universal Wear-testing Machine Documentation for