IK4-TEKNIKER is organising the Lubmat 2012 Conference focusing on lubrication, maintenance and tribology; it will be held from 6 to 8 June at the Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao

An incident in the cooling of a nuclear power station in the United States and a plane crash in Russia last year highlighted the importance of lubrication in the functioning of machines

Representatives of multinationals like Iberdrola, Fiat or Petróleos de Venezuela, universities and R+D centres will be analysing the importance of lubricants in applications like Formula 1 or wind energy

The cooling problems at the Ameren Callaway nuclear power station in Missouri (USA), and the accident that befell the Angara airlines Antonov AN-24 aircraft in Russia, which occurred in 2011, have something in common: both were caused by the malfunctioning of the lubrication in their internal systems.

Lubrication is a key aspect in the efficient, effective and steady functioning of all types of machinery. For example, the report submitted by the huge American Ford auto manufacturer last year showed that certain lubricants cause less friction and wear, so engines consume less fuel and see an improvement in their performance. The progressive importance that the industry has been attaching to lubrication has led to a considerable increase in research in this field.

In this respect, the latest advances in lubrication, maintenance and tribology (the study of friction and wear in materials) will be under scrutiny during the third edition of the Lubmat 2012 Congress, organised by IK4-TEKNIKER and the Jost Institute of the United Kingdom, and due to take place at the Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao from 6 to 8 June; it will be attended by international experts from the business and academic sphere.

Representatives of multinational companies like Iberdrola, FIAT or Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and teachers from the international academic sphere like the University of Iwate in Japan, or the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom, will be offering various lectures on matters relating to lubrication and tribology. Representatives of Iberdrola, Petronor, Noria, CAF, the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, VTT and the STLE will also be among those offering an overview of their respective sectors.

Multiple lectures

Among the various papers to be given at the conference, visitors will have the chance to attend lectures like "Maintenance problems in offshore, wind energy generation facilities" delivered by a representative of Gamesa, or "Racing oils, how a tailor-made lubricant is formulated", to be given by Javier de Diego, coordinator of lubricants at Repsol.

Lubmat 2012 will be focusing on all aspects to do with managing lubrication and its technology: oils, greases, cutting fluids, industrial fluids; how to make them less harmful for the environment, lubrication in special environments or managing and monitoring them.

The event, which is being sponsored by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy and Competitiveness, the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community (region), and the companies Fluitec and PerkinElmer, will be preceded by a series of pre-conferences offering a practical approach and given by some of the most prestigious collaborators in the conference on matters linked to production. The venue for these courses will be the Hotel Abba Parque in Bilbao and will take place on 5 June on the eve of the start of the Lubmat 2012 Conference; they will be dealing with subjects like contamination, the production of oils, enamelling and metals.

During the conference there will also be an exhibition going on simultaneously in which the main organisations in the sector will be presenting their latest products and innovations. The exhibition will have stands of R+D centres like IK4-TEKNIKER, companies like Bruker, and organisations like the STLE-Society of Tribologists and Lubication Engineers of the United States.

What is more, IK4-TEKNIKER's Tribology Unit will be submitting a paper entitled "Tribological Research into ionic liquids in an ultra-high vacuum environment", written in collaboration with Vladimir Totolin and Nicole Dörr of AC²T Research GmbH (Austria), and Prof. Ichiro Minami, of the University of Iwate (Japan).

IK4-TEKNIKER is a benchmark in the lubrication and tribology sector since it has experience spanning over 25 years' worth of research work. This trajectory has enabled this R+D centre to enjoy a significant presence in areas like maintenance, reliability, environmental assessment, development of formulations, the control of use and condition-monitoring.

IK4-TEKNIKER has participated in some of the main European R+D projects relating to lubrication with partners of the stature of EADS, Repsol or Wearcheck, the largest group worldwide devoted to the analysis of oils.

Applications in the automotive sector and biomedicine

Apart from applications in the automotive sector, like the protection and simulation of engine components and brakes, tribo-lubrication offers the potential for application in other fields like biomedicine (it is looking, for example, into how to reduce bone wear and tear), machine tools, industrial machining, the chemical and food industry or civil engineering and hydraulic works.

The R+D Centre located in Eibar (Basque Country) leads tribo-lubrication on a European level from all possible perspectives: the lubricant starting with its formulation, its control in use, its monitoring and its life cycle, as well as its management in the plant and maintenance of mechanical systems.

Calle Iñaki Goenaga, 5 · 20600 Eibar · Gipuzkoa · Spain Tel: 943.20.67.44 / 943.25.69.00 · Fax: 943.20.27.57