From 14 to 18 September 2024, the 7th Asia International Conference on Tribology (ASIATRIB2024) and the 9th China International Conference on Tribology (CICT2024) were held as a joint conference in Tianjin, China, located south of Beijing. More than 800 participants coming from 25 countries attended this conference. In total, there were 545 oral presentations, 88 poster presentations, and 46 exhibitors.
Austria was represented by Kartik Pondicherry from Anton Paar GmbH and Nicole Dörr from AC2T research GmbH. Mr. Pondicherry reported on novel measurement methods for the electro-tribological characterisation of greases for electrical vehicles using Anton Paar’s MCR tribometer. Ms. Dörr provided a keynote talk on ammonia as carbon-free energy carrier and its impact on engine oil performance. She concluded that ammonia causes chemical reactions with the engine oil which are unknown with conventional fuels and therefore requires particular care in the formulation and use of such engine oils.
While electrical vehicles have a high priority connected with large attendance at the annual meeting of the STLE, this topic only played a minor role at the ASIATRIB&CICT2024. Instead, more than 40 presentations were assigned to the topic of superlubricity or ultra-low friction, flanked by a plenary lecture given by Jean-Michel Martin from École Centrale de Lyon, a pioneer in superlubricity research. Besides topics of tribology, a 2-days symposium on triboelectric nanogenerators for energy and sensors was held.
Conference co-chair Prof. Zhongrong Zhou from Southwest Jiaotong University announced, not without pride, that Chinese researchers have published the most papers in the field of tribology since 2011. He cited Tsinghua University, and Southwest Jiatong University and Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics as the three most important Chinese institutions regarding publishing activities in tribology.
At the banquet, the organizing team gave a singing performance, which is unusual for Europeans but was an absolutely memorable highlight.
