What Does Tribology Need Next? Hear from the PCS WTC Team
Written by Amitha Clark
Some of the most important advances in tribology begin with a question that current testing cannot quite answer. How do we study electrified contacts, test at higher speeds, characterise new lubricants or build a stronger connection between results on the bench and performance in the field?
As applications change, testing must change with them.
Five members of the PCS Instruments team are heading to Rio de Janeiro for the 8th World Tribology Congress, taking place from 20 to 25 September 2026. Ahead of the event, we asked them about the challenges shaping tribology testing and where it needs to go next.
Their perspectives follow the journey of a testing challenge, from the questions reaching PCS Instruments today and the translation of real-world conditions into laboratory tests, to the data, instrumentation and capabilities researchers need to investigate them.
Dr Boumedienne Boudjelida: Starting with the Testing Challenge
A testing requirement often starts with a conversation about something existing methods or instrumentation cannot fully investigate.
As Global Head of Sales, Boumedienne works closely with researchers and industry partners to understand the applications, measurements and capabilities they need from tribology testing.
“We work closely with our partners who value our Tribology expertise, especially in Lubricants-related applications. There are always new measurements challenges linked to pushing the current capabilities of tribometers, and also new capabilities to be added to better address the new problems in the market.
For example, EVs, high-speed testing, new lubricants characterisation, Food tribology, sustainability, film formation or bench-to-field correlation are very common areas of discussions. We recently added the EC capability to allow the study of electrical potentials in tribological contacts. All in all, the need for relevant, repeatable and innovative tribology equipment is what people look for when talking to PCS Instruments.”
The applications vary, but the underlying requirement remains consistent: researchers need controlled, repeatable ways to investigate conditions that are becoming more complex.
Identifying that need is the starting point. The next challenge is deciding how it should be studied.
Dr Kieran Nar: Translating Real-World Conditions into Testing
A real-world tribological problem does not arrive in the laboratory as a neat set of test conditions. It arrives as a system of contacting materials, operating conditions and interacting variables.
Kieran, Applications Development Engineer, explains why understanding that wider system is essential when developing a meaningful laboratory test:
“It's important to understand the conditions present in real-world tribological contacts, including the properties of the contacting bodies and the operating conditions they experience. This allows laboratory-scale tests to reproduce these conditions as closely as possible, while also enabling the effects of specific variables to be interrogated by carefully controlling all other factors - for example, studying the effect of increasingly high rolling speeds on traction without the risk of thermal runaway.”
The objective is not simply to reproduce a complete application at a smaller scale. It is to identify and preserve the conditions that matter, while introducing enough experimental control to understand cause and effect.
At WTC 2026, Kieran will present:
Applying Tribology to Cosmetic Products: Exploring the Relationship Between Formulation and Friction
Thursday, 3:40-4:00 pm | Oceania V
Dr Alexander MacLaren: Turning Measurements into Evidence
Creating the right test conditions is only part of the challenge. The instrumentation must also capture what happens within the contact at the right time and in enough detail to reveal the mechanism being studied.
More data does not automatically mean more insight. If measurements are too slow, out of sync or difficult to interpret, important events can remain hidden within the results.
Alex, Senior R&D Tribologist, considers what instrumentation must solve next:
“Tribology is full of interesting challenges, especially at a time when spotting patterns in high-dimensional data is increasingly within reach for researchers and designers. For tribology test data to make an impact though, it must be sampled fast enough to resolve the underlying mechanisms, synchronised to enable causal relationships to be established, and postprocessed to create a clear, reliable picture of what's going on in the contact.
Giving our customers the control they need to get the most out of their hardware, while ensuring safety and data integrity, is always at the front of our minds, and is something we're really excited about for future products too - watch this space!”
The next step is not simply collecting more measurements. It is giving researchers the speed, synchronisation and clarity needed to turn those measurements into reliable evidence.
At WTC 2026, Alex will present:
High-Speed Thermoelastohydrodynamic Friction with Entrained Air
Thursday, 4:40-5:00 pm | Oceania IX
Dr Benjamin Wainwright: From Requirement to Practical Instrumentation
Once the application, test conditions and measurement requirements are understood, they must be translated into instrumentation that researchers can use confidently on the bench.
Ben, Senior R&D Tribologist, explains how conversations with researchers feed into the development process:
“Through insightful conversations and discussions with our user base, both in academia and industry, we are able to stay well-informed ensuring instrumentation is able to tackle, current, real world challenges. Throughout the design process, we stay on top of available technologies allowing us to push the envelope of what a bench-top tribometer can achieve.
Our aim is to provide as much flexibility as possible around experimental research to our users whilst maintaining an easy-to-use bench-top approach. Within development we have the freedom to investigate novel ideas and approaches for a single problem ensuring that we are able to arrive to innovative engineering solutions and maximising on delivering quality.”
This balance sits at the centre of instrument development. Testing capabilities need to expand without making the resulting instrument impractical, inaccessible or unnecessarily difficult to use.
At WTC 2026, Ben will present:
Effect of Electric Potentials on Initiation and Progression of Surface Initiated Rolling Contact Fatigue
Thursday, 5:20-5:40 pm | Oceania II
Eleanor Barrett: Expanding What Research Can Investigate
Eleanor, Test Engineer, completes the team’s contribution to the WTC technical programme with a presentation in oral tribology. Her perspective considers the difference the right instrument can make to the scope and design of a research project:
“The right instrument can expand what a research project is able to investigate by enabling more representative testing and giving researchers greater control over experimental design.
For biological studies, equipment designed for low-load, low-speed and complex-motion testing can better reflect the relevant conditions, while fully tuneable settings allow experiments to be adapted to the needs of the project.”
Her work demonstrates how tribological testing can be applied beyond conventional mechanical systems, using controlled measurement to investigate friction and performance in an application closely connected to human experience.
At WTC 2026, Eleanor will present:
Improvements to Oral Tribology Test Methodologies for Xerostomia Aid Optimisation
Friday, 10:10-10:30 am | Oceania V
Continue the Conversation at WTC 2026
PCS Instruments will be exhibiting throughout WTC 2026 at Booth 12.
Visitors will be able to see the HSD and HPR on the stand, while the MPR will be represented by a dedicated banner. The team will also be available to discuss the questions and testing challenges behind visitors’ own work.
If your work is pushing beyond the limits of an existing test method, bring the challenge to us. Whether the difficulty lies in recreating the right conditions, isolating an important variable, capturing the right measurements or developing a new capability, the conversation is often the first step towards a meaningful test.