EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY EXPOSURE FACILITY - TRIBOLOGY LABORATORY (EUTEF-TRIBOLAB)
Research Area: Spacecraft Materials
Expedition(s): 16- 20
Principal Investigator(s): • Marta Brizuela, INASMET, San Sebastian, Spain
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
This series of European Technology Exposure Facility - Tribology Laboratory (EuTEF-TriboLab)
experiments covers research in tribology (science of mechanisms of friction, lubrication, and
wear of interacting surfaces that are in motion). This is of major importance for spacecraft
systems. The Tribolab experiments cover both experiments in liquid and solid lubrication such
as the evaluation of fluid losses from surfaces and the evaluation of wear of polymer and
metallic cages weightlessness.
RESULTS
The first results from the “Pin on Disk” tests in the Tribolab
experiment showed that the behavior of the lubricants under
microgravity and vacuum conditions in orbit is similar to their
behavior on Earth, with transferred material from the coated disk to
the mating surface (ball). The main friction coefficient and the
maximum endurance of the coating in orbit were similar to the ones
obtained on Earth in a commercial tribometer.
PUBLICATION(S)
Garmendia I, Anglada E, Vallejo H, Ptaszliewicz M, Insausti N.
Thermal Control of Tribolab, a materials experiment in the
International Space Station. 50th Anniversary Conference.
Engineering: Science and Technology, San Sebastian, Spain; 2012
May 31 to June 1.
Garmendia I, Landaberea A, Anglada E, Fernandez-Sanz R, Santiago R, Herrada F, Encinas JM.
The vacuum tribology model (VTM) of TriboLAB. 10th European Space Mechanisms and
Tribology Symposium, San Sebastian, Spain; 2003 September 24-26 67-70.
This investigation is complete, and all results are published.
TriboLab Flight model. Image
courtesy of ESA.