Assessment of industrial attitudes toward generic research needs in tribology

Based on extended discussions during visits with 27 companies representing 13 different parts of the tribology industry (such as bearings, lubricants, coatings, powerplants), it is apparent that only a tiny fraction of the large sums publicly reported as R and D expenditures by industry are used to fund generic tribology research. For example, of the greater than $2 B expenditures reported for R and D in the lubricants sector for 1982, the estimated total for generic tribology research was $12 M. This was the largest expenditure in any sector of the tribology industry and one-third of the total of $36 M. In the automotive industry out of a reported expenditure of $4 B, the estimated generic tribology research was $3 M. In some segments of the tribology industry, for example coatings and filters, there were no expenditures on generic research. There was little tendency to improve the state of the art of the tribology industry through long-term investment in generic R and D in ways that would foster innovation and productivity of energy conservation technology. Expenditures were oriented to development of specific commercial and military products, or to basic research focused on unspecified far term results, although useful spin-off of military developments into commercial fields sometimes occurs. There was a broad consensus in the companies visited that existing research results were not always made easily accessible to potential users in industry. The implication was that industry might benefit more if a larger fraction of the funds were devoted to putting the research results into a form design and development engineers could more readily apply. The need for a more effective presentation of research results was expressed with greater urgency at the smaller companies, but there seemed to be a broad consensus on the need for improvement. Recommendations are given