NEWS
Marcello Conte, IK4-TEKNIKER researcher, receives the Frank P. Bussick 2012 award
Marcello Conte, researcher in the Tribology Unit of IK4-TEKNIKER, has received the Frank P. Bussick 2012 award, which is bestowed every year by the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE), for his paper "Performance and Behaviour of Seals for Pneumatic Spool Valves".
Through the Frank P. Bussick award, the STLE acknowledges “outstanding technical papers written on sealing systems, technology and materials”. And this year, following a meticulous selection process, the organisation’s committee of directors has decided to award Conte for his article, first published in 2011 in issue 54 of the journal Tribology Transactions. The text covers the results of this PhD thesis done at the Polytechnic of Turin in 2009.
The STLE, set up in 1944, is the most important technical society in the international tribology and lubrication sector, a meeting point and source of information for the over 10,000 people and more than 150 top companies and organisations comprising the sector. Since 1999, through the Frank P. Bussick award, the organisation has been recognising the most outstanding article of the year on research linked to the tribology sector. Tribology is the science of interactions between surfaces in relative reciprocal movement. Tribology research into reducing friction has significant applications in energy saving, since friction increases energy consumption.
Conte, who will be attending the forthcoming annual meeting of the STLE in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), on 8 May 2012 to receive the award, belongs to IK4-TEKNIKER’s Tribology Unit, led by Dr. Amaya Igartua. This team has experience in the field of tribology going back a long time and is regarded as one of the best and most complete in Europe.
IK4-TEKNIKER’s Tribology Unit has top companies like CAF, Gamesa, Fagor, Airbus, Ford or Fiat among its clients. The Unit’s main activity focuses on research into materials, surface engineering, polymer and vacuum tribology, optimization of motors and engines, and various components like bearings, roller bearings and gears.
The high degree of specialization of IK4-TEKNIKER’s Tribology Unit has made it worthy of the trust of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), with which it is currently collaborating on an international industrial project. Besides its research and innovation work at the service of IK4-TEKNIKER’s clients, the Unit is involved in teaching through active collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country; in the tribology course for students on the Master’s PhD course in Mechanical Engineering it gives an annual class on sealing.
