Tribology takes center stage
Edward P. Salek, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report June 2020
STLE media campaign smooths the way.
Recent developments in the field have pushed this little-known branch of science into the spotlight.
Communications and advocacy have been the focus of STLE’s media campaign during the past 30 months. As a result, more than 50 feature-length articles have appeared in publications that reach millions of readers involved with engineering and technology for transportation, manufacturing, energy and metalworking.
The goal of the campaign is to communicate the value of tribology and lubrication engineering innovations to a global audience outside the field. STLE believes that strong communications and advocacy efforts help ensure our future relevance as a profession, an industry and a professional society.
This campaign to put tribology in the spotlight entered a new phase recently when the venerable Popular Mechanics magazine devoted 1,500 words to “How the Obscure Science of Rubbing Built the Past and Will Shape the Future.”¹ Freelance author Adrienne Bernhard wrote the piece in collaboration with STLE media advisor Patti Bianchi (LimeLight Resources). Key STLE spokespersons for the article were Tribology Transactions editor Chris DellaCorte (NASA Glenn Research Center) and TLT editor Evan Zabawski (TestOil).
Popular Mechanics’ editorial mission is to help enhance the average person’s understanding of science and technology. The tribology article was a great fit for the national publication and a huge boost for STLE’s efforts to make tribology more recognized for its contributions to advancing everyday products and processes.
“While tribologists—specialists who work in the field—have traditionally focused on fatigue, waste or failure in mechanical elements like these, recent developments in the field have pushed this little-known branch of science into the spotlight,” the article states. “In fact, tribology’s influence on global energy consumption, emissions, healthcare and sustainability has never been more immediate.”
This characterization of tribology might sound familiar to people in the field, but getting the word out to a broader audience is significant. Especially when they read it in a prestigious media outlet that began publishing in 1902 and today attracts over three million unique visitors per month online.
Wikipedia tells us that Popular Mechanics has featured articles contributed by notable people, including Guglielmo Marconi, Thomas Edison, Jules Verne, Barney Oldfield, Knute Rockne, Winston Churchill, Charles Kettering, Tom Wolfe and Buzz Aldrin as well as U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
The current content in Popular Mechanics remains eclectic. There’s a recurring Jay Leno column featuring observations by the former talk show host and vehicle enthusiast. At the same time readers were learning about tribology, the magazine also offered up 10 tips for better spray painting and explained how a robotic dog is helping hospitals protect the medical staff and manage through the coronavirus pandemic. Hint: He interviews patients and disinfects portions of the facility.
One article in a highly visible magazine is just incremental progress toward reaching our advocacy goals. The campaign will continue because it’s an important aspect of supporting STLE members’ efforts to achieve a more sustainable future through advancing the science of tribology and the practice of lubrication engineering.
As the Popular Mechanics article reminds us, tribology’s roots date back to the Stone Age, Ancient Egypt and even the Bible. In the present day, tribological applications allow human beings to interact with their solid planet, overcome the inconvenience of excessive wear and mitigate the loss of time and precious resources.
“We still have centuries of work ahead of us,” says TLT editor Zabawski in the Popular Mechanics article, “but tribology continues to impact our lives in new and inventive ways.”
Read the full Popular Mechanics article at
www.stle.org . Go to the About tab and look for Featured Articles. To learn more about Popular Mechanics and its various editorial features, visit
www.popularmechanics.com.
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You can reach Certified Association Executive Ed Salek at esalek@stle.org.