Editorial

Citation

Taylor, J. (2003), "Editorial", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 55 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2003.01855baa.001

Editorial

The first matter this issue is to remind readers and potential contributors is that I have recently moved and my new address is shown inside the front cover. This new address should be used for papers intended for publication and of course Journal Article Record forms.

In this issue of Industrial Lubrication and Tribology we have work covering very different aspects of our general interests. von Wielligh and colleagues from the University of Pretoria in South Africa report on work looking at the lubricity of modern diesel fuels. It seems that major engine failures have occurred which can be linked to combustion problems. The poor combustion is itself linked to low levels of lubricity of the fuel. This is attributed to differing fuel formulations. The answer is to include lubricity requirements in fuel specifications. Within Europe the reduction of sulphur levels and the introduction of "clean diesel fuel" has led to similar problems to those experienced in South Africa. However, in Europe the problem has been seen in reduced pump life rather than engine failure. Some diesel fuel users have now adopted the use of secondary fuel treatments to eliminate the problem. It does seem that in both Europe and South Africa the end user is left with costs of poor fuel formulation development.

Workers from Celal Bayar University and Sakarya University in Turkey present their paper examining the effect of surface treating stainless steel. Coating techniques are widely used to improve basic characteristics of the substrate. This paper reports on some very interesting experimental results on the changes in friction and wear rates caused by the coatings.

Jaw-Ren Lin from the Nanya Institute of Technology in Taiwan, Republic of China, develops a mathematical analysis of squeeze film characteristics of rectangular plates under MHD conditions.

Philippe Hivart and Jean-Paul Bricout present an examination of how the surface properties of steel are affected by the cleaning treatment prior to phosphating. They make the very important point that the pre-treatments are not usually considered from a tribological view. This is interesting as often the reason for phosphating is to change the frictional characteristics of the workpiece and improve separation from the tool in machining of forming operations. They provide some pointers to problem areas in cleaning and other treatment areas that warrant further research.

I hope these papers provide "food for thought" and may provoke you to share your research project with other readers.

John Taylor