Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

Towards Intelligent Micro-Bearings – Tribological Aspects (IMBeing)

Periodic Report Summary 2 - IMBEING (Towards Intelligent Micro-Bearings – Tribological Aspects (IMBeing))

The Project Objectives
The project made a basement for networking, staff exchanging and joint seminars and workshop between partners, who all deal with the problem of tribology aspects of micro-bearings including friction and lubrication of micro-pairs and friction of micro-joints in conical, spherical, cylindrical, parabolic and hyperbolical micro-bearings. The aim was shaping a focus group for further cooperation and joint scientific researches in the mentioned field. Microbearings are used today in different fields: bioengineering and biotechnology, industrial Micro Elements and Micro Systems (MEMS), Micro Power Units (MPU) and Micro Engines (ME), control systems and actuators and many others. Moreover, there are numerous analogies between bio-bearings (for example knees) and micro-bearings in their hydrodynamic behavior, lubrication processes and tribological aspects. Development of nanoscience and application of nanotechnology enabled the researchers to understand these properties better and deeper. However, still there are many unanswered questions regarding behavior and properties of these contact surfaces. More important is, of course, control of these features by an active method, as these physical parts are very small with very low time constants and conventional control systems are not able to satisfy the requirements like stability and quality of their response. In fact only by active control of these systems we may be able to gain the goal and impose the demanded quality on them. This requires application of artificial intelligence leading to make an intelligent micro bearing. Therefore, it is obvious from one side there are many similarities between bio bearings and micro bearings and from the other hand solutions for the given problems can be found only through a multidisciplinary research group. This IRSES project is an answer to such a demand. The fundamental result of the activities is establishing a long-term cooperation between the partners and a joint research program for further actions. The project deals with the mentioned research needs and includes staffs exchanging between partners from EU and TC based on an almost equal scheme, joint seminars and workshops, as well as final presentations for each period of staff exchange.
Description of the work
The work program initially included 168 months staffs exchange between partners from EU and OTC countries based on an almost equal scheme (87 MM hosting of 17 researchers from OTC by EU partners and 81 MM hosting of 17 researchers from EU by OTC partners) and 3 joint seminars and workshops, as well as final presentations for each period of exchanges. The project was set for the period of 02.01.2014 – 02.01.2017. At the end of project, totally 135 researcher-month is realized under ImBeing, which is more than 80% of the plan for the whole period of project. However, the number of researchers have been maintained almost in the level of plan (increased from 34 to 35), which means the project successfully integrated a wide group of researchers. The researchers (Early Stage and Experienced Researchers), who are seconded for the project are selected so that the gender issue is taken into account (at least 30% female). The presentations and seminars were accessible publicly, free of charge. It should be mentioned that all beneficiary and partner organizations have accepted and signed an agreement of cooperation under IMBeing and then a Partnership Agreement.
During the secondment periods researchers made contact also with industry and several research and development institutes of the host country, which were not included in the initial plan. An example is Polish Academy of Science and its Institute of Turbomachinery in Gdańsk, which cooperated closely to Gdańsk University of Technology, organized additional seminars in which ImBeing researchers took part actively and delivered their presentations. The institute also made access to its advanced laboratory facilities and researchers may do common investigations. As a result several common papers are published or under publication in international scientific journals.
The networking was successfully realized and at the end of project 3 ideas regarding the further cooperation have been made, based on which actually two project proposition are under preparation for submitting under European research programs. Today, after accomplishing the project activities, fortunately many of participated researchers are in a close contact, do common tests and researches and publish the results of their works in scientific journals.
The 1st International Seminar entitled “Modelling and Simulation in Hydrodynamics and Tribology of Micro and Bio Bearings" was organized by Institute of Technology and Education, (KUT) in cooperation with GUT and AM. The conference was held on 26-27 June 2014. Totally, 26 researchers from EU beneficiaries and TC partners took part in this conference. During the seminar 8 presentations and 8 posters delivered under in two parts: oral presentations and poster session.
The 2nd International Seminar entitled “Measuring the Tribological Properties of Micro and Bio Bearings” with focusing on tribology- and wear simulation with the Finite-Element-Method was held on 25-26.08.2015 in IPEK – Institut für Produktentwicklung of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. 11 presentations delivered in the first day of the seminar and 5 posters were presented and discussed during the Poster Session, next day. Totally, 21 researchers from EU beneficiaries and TC partners took part in this seminar.
The final event of the project was held in Mińsk on 21.10.2016 which was a workshop organized by National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus - Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer (HMTI). The workshop topic was “Testing and measurements of contact surface and nano properties of surfaces and coatings for micro bearings using AFM methods”. 25 researchers from EU beneficiaries and TC partners took part in this workshop. The workshop was organized in cooperation withan international conference, which was held in the same time in Mińsk (Methodological Aspects of Scanning Probe Microscopy - BySPM2016, 12th International Conference, 18–21 October). It was an occasion for participant researchers of ImBeing to take part in both events.
The project webpage is available online in which the necessary information and majority of publications are available: http://pg.edu.pl/imbeing.

Related documents