THE National Centre of Tribology (NCT) celebrated its 50th anniversary at an event in Birchwood recently.
NCT is operated by ESR Technology from their HQ at Cavendish Place and at the event, they also launched an exciting new collaboration with The Henry Royce Institute for the advancement of tribology and advanced materials engineering.
Steve Gill, Technical Director at ESR Technology said: “Most people outside of engineering or science has never heard of Tribology and yet it benefits us all in our daily lives making machinery operate more efficiently on land, at sea and in space.
“We are very proud of this new collaboration with the Royce Institute which will provide exciting new areas of Tribology investigation into the future.”
The Henry Royce Institute is the UK national institute for advanced materials research and innovation. The Royce works collaboratively with industry and academia to accelerate the innovation of materials systems, in order to create economic and societal benefit.
With its hub at The University of Manchester, and more than £330 million invested in capability across its nine Partner institutions, the Royce is making a step change to research capability in the UK.
The announcement of the collaboration between ESR Technology and the Henry Royce Institute is the first time that a collaboration with an industry provider has been entered in to by the Henry Royce Institute.
Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. A Working Group under the chairmanship of Peter Jost reported to the Government in 1966, and first coined the word tribology as well as recommending the establishment of three tribology centres in the UK. The National Centre of Tribology (NCT) was one of these founded 1n 1968.
The heritage of ESR Technology stems from nuclear-based atomic energy research in the 1950’s, evolving over decades to become the owner-managed, small and medium sized enterprise (SME) that it is today.
ESR Technology provide independent and specialist technical consultancy, products and services into various sectors including Aerospace, Vacuum, Transport, Rail, Oil & Gas, Nuclear, Renewable Energy and the Industrial and Manufacturing markets.
Allan Matthews, Professor of Surface Engineering and Tribology at The University of Manchester and Director of the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials, added: “NCT was in the vanguard of the industrial implementation of Tribology and has remained as a key provider of consultancy and advice on best practice in this vitally-important industrial technology area.
“There is an excellent fit between the NCT’s activities and the research being pursued within the Royce Universities. I anticipate that the links between the NCT and the Royce will continue to strengthen and this will bring important benefits to the organisations and the country.”
