The underlying principle of the Sustainable Design Research Centre is the study of surface wear mechanisms and integration of sustainable development issues within engineering components and systems.
The Centre has extensive experimental facilities to assess wear mechanisms of rolling and sliding contacts, including a rotary tribometer, a micro-frication machine and a scanning surface microscope.
We have formed strong partnerships with multinational companies such as SKF (Netherlands), Oakland Ridge National Laboratories (USA), Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Energetix and Smith & Nephew and secured funding from The Royal Academy of Engineering and EPSRC.
Issues of tribology (friction, wear and lubrication) are studied to help understand their influence on product durability and energy consumption. The activities of this theme include three areas:
For more information visit the Sustainable Design Research Centre website.