3. Tribological systems design

3.1 General rules

The design of a mechanical system with a minimum service life Δt and involving contacts with relative movement between parts is an extremely complex problem, and falls within the domain of highly experienced specialists in materials science, solid mechanics, tribology... In most cases, this design is carried out sequentially, following well-defined stages, but in successive iterations: the analysis at a given stage may call into question the choices and assumptions made at one or more previous stages, which means starting the design work all over again. So we can only give you a few general ideas.

• First of all, we need to determine the nature of the mechanism, its geometry and kinematics, and therefore the sliding velocity...