Why Tribology Matters More in the Age of Electric Cars

insights from industrySaid JahanmirAssistant DirectorNational Institute of Standards and Technology

As electric vehicles and other advanced systems push performance boundaries, the fundamentals of friction, wear, and lubrication are becoming more consequential, not less.

Image Credit: supamotion.co/Shutterstock.com

For many technology leaders, tribology sounds like a niche engineering discipline. It is not. The science of friction, wear, and lubrication plays a central role in machine performance, how long they last, and how efficiently they run. As electric cars become more common, that science is becoming even more important.

In this Q&A, Said Jahanmir, a lead instructor for MIT Professional Education’s course, Tribology: Friction, Wear, Lubrication, and Design, explains why the field matters more today, what companies often get wrong when troubleshooting friction and wear problems, and why a stronger grounding in the fundamentals still matters.

For readers outside the field, what is tribology and why should they care?

Tribology is the study of friction, wear, lubrication, and interacting surfaces in motion. Any system with moving contact involves tribology. That includes bearings, gears, engines, manufacturing equipment, and even biological joints.

So while the term may sound specialized, the subject is not. If two surfaces move against each other, tribology will affect performance, durability, energy efficiency, and reliability. In that sense, it is everywhere.

Why does tribology feel especially relevant right now?

Because the systems we are designing are becoming more demanding. We want them to run faster, last longer, carry more load, waste less energy, and operate more reliably. At the same time, electrification is changing the environments in which many of these systems operate.

The important point is that the fundamentals do not change. What changes is the application. The science still begins with surfaces in contact, the conditions at that interface, and the way materials and lubricants behave. But those fundamentals now have to be applied to newer and more complex systems.

Electric vehicles are one of those newer systems. What changes from a tribology standpoint?

An electric vehicle creates a different environment from a conventional internal combustion system. You do not have the same components, and in some cases you also have electrical discharge taking place in bearings and motors. That means the demands on materials and lubricants are different.

You cannot simply assume that the same lubrication strategy or same design logic used in conventional vehicles will transfer directly. Electrification changes the conditions, and those conditions require careful attention if you want long-term reliability.

Are companies still working through those challenges?

Yes, and in many cases they have developed solutions. But the more important question is whether those solutions will continue to work as operating conditions change.

A very common pattern in industry is trial and error. A company has a problem, tries something, and finds a fix that appears to work. But often the team does not fully understand why it worked. Then the speed increases, the load changes, the temperature rises, or the duty cycle shifts, and suddenly the solution is no longer effective.

That is why a short-term fix is not the same as a real solution. If you do not understand the underlying physics and chemistry, you may solve the immediate issue without solving the actual problem.

You keep coming back to “fundamentals.” What exactly do you mean by that?

You start with the surfaces themselves. Every surface has physical structure, chemical structure, roughness, mechanical properties, and chemical properties. Then you have to think about the environment, the lubricant, the load, the speed, the temperature, and the materials involved.

At the interface, all of these factors interact. To solve tribology problems well, you have to think at the molecular level about what is happening at that contact.

Even something as seemingly simple as a lubricant is not simple at all. Oil is not just oil. A lubricant contains many chemistries, and those chemistries interact differently depending on the surface and the operating conditions. Those interactions ultimately influence the behavior of the entire system.

Why do organizations so often miss that?

Because tribology is often the last thing they think about. A team may work through several possible causes, try multiple fixes, and only later realize the real issue is tribological.

At that point, they may go to a bearing company and ask for a bearing that works, or go to a lubricant supplier and ask for a better oil. But if the organization does not really understand the nature of the problem, it cannot explain what is happening clearly. And if it cannot define the problem clearly, it becomes very difficult for a supplier or partner to help solve it in a systematic way.

That is one of the most common issues in tribology. The technical problem is real, but the knowledge needed to describe it is often missing.

So this is not only a materials issue. It is also a skills and education issue.

Exactly. The problems did not disappear, the training did.

Many engineers today encounter tribology problems in industry without having had meaningful preparation in the subject. Yet the systems themselves are still here, and in many cases they are becoming more sophisticated. We are building more advanced mechanical and electromechanical systems, but we are not necessarily building enough tribology knowledge into the pipeline.

That gap is important because friction and wear aren't side issues. They influence how long products last, how efficiently they run, and how reliably they perform in the field.

How does that show up in the way you teach the MIT course?

We keep the focus on fundamentals, because that is what allows engineers to think through new problems. But we also bring in specialized expertise where it is needed.

This year, for example, we added lectures on electric vehicle tribology. We also have instructors covering areas such as nanotribology and tribology in specific bearings and gears under demanding conditions. The goal is not to hand every participant a quick answer to every problem. That would be impossible. The goal is to give them the framework they need to understand their own systems and approach their own challenges more intelligently.

What should technology leaders take away from this?

They should recognize that tribology is not just a troubleshooting topic. It belongs much earlier in the design process.

If you are building advanced products in transportation, manufacturing, aerospace, robotics, or any electromechanical field, you need people who can think carefully about surfaces, contact conditions, lubrication, and wear mechanisms from the beginning. Otherwise, you risk mistaking a temporary fix for a durable solution.

As systems become more demanding, that mistake becomes more expensive.

About Said Jahanmir

Said Jahanmir, Ph.D., is Assistant Director for Federal Partnerships at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Office of Advanced Manufacturing (OAM) and an instructor for the MIT Professional Education course Tribology: Friction, Wear, Lubrication, and Design.

He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington and MIT, respectively, and has held leadership roles in academia, industry, and government, including at UC Berkeley, Cornell, Exxon Research and Engineering, the National Science Foundation, and NIST. A recognized leader in tribology and manufacturing, he served as the 137th President of ASME and has received honorary membership in both ASME and STLE.

This information has been sourced, reviewed, and adapted from materials provided by MIT Professional Education.

For more information on this source, please visit MIT Professional Education.