Fun in motion
By Rebecca Lintow, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report February 2025
The STLE podcast, Perfecting Motion, dives into tribology applications you might not have considered before.
What do chocolate, climbing and sneakers have in common? While the average person might be stumped, the STLE community can likely answer right away: tribology. We already know that tribology impacts everything around us, and part of STLE’s mission is to spread awareness about how important our field is in keeping the world moving efficiently. One fun platform for doing this is the STLE Podcast, Perfecting Motion
®.
Perfecting Motion is a monthly offering available on all major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Podcasts or right in your web browser. While we have episodes on in-demand technical topics like lubricant testing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, sustainability and more, we also are including topics related to tribology’s role in daily life. All episodes are archived and available at
www.stle.org/podcast, as well as your favorite podcast streaming apps. New episodes are released at the end of each month.
Hosted by STLE members and staff, Perfecting Motion features conversations with leading industry professionals sharing their insights about being an STLE member, current issues and trends impacting the global tribology and lubricants community. The latest episode is The Tribology of Climbing, featuring STLE member Dr. Hannes Grillenberger, who serves on the STLE Board of Directors and is also an experienced climber. Join us as he discusses how he uses his understanding of tribology to help him choose equipment, techniques and routes when climbing. Climbing, a physically and mentally demanding sport, involves ascending natural rock formations or artificial walls using specialized techniques and equipment. Dr. Grillenberger and other tribologists find particular interest in the friction and wear considerations inherent to climbing gear, such as ropes, harnesses and footwear, as well as the tribological properties of rock surfaces that influence grip and ascent strategies.
If you’ve ever tried to explain your work to someone outside of our industry, you know it can be hard to grasp as an outsider. You probably have gotten the question, “So what exactly is tribology?” many times. Next time, you can send them an episode of Perfecting Motion for a fun, approachable explanation of how tribology fits into their everyday life. The STLE podcast is meant for a wider audience than just our tribology and lubrication engineering community, so recommend it to a friend or colleague. What they learn might even help them improve at their own work, sport or hobby!
In TLT, we’ve touched on the tribology of dance, music, wine, bicycle racing and even vegan sausages. If you have a special interest or talent with a unique tribology application, we would love to hear more about it. You can reach out to Robert Morowczynski at rmorowczynski@stle.org with suggestions for future podcast topics or to be featured as guest. And if you enjoy listening to Perfecting Motion, be sure to share the latest episode with your network on social media.
You can reach Certified Association Executive Rebecca Lintow at rlintow@stle.org.