State of the art modular traction tribometer to be showcased at Lubricant Expo North America

Paltro will display its Modular Traction Tribometer (MTT) at the 2025 Detroit Lube Expo. This ball-on-disc instrument precisely measures friction and wear in lubricated contacts under various rolling-sliding conditions and environmental settings. Compared to conventional traction machines, MTT offers value ‘beyond friction’ with an open architecture that supports interchangeable Microforce and Decaforce sensors, fretting drive, tackiness attachment, corrosion attachment and surface 2D/3D imaging heads.

MTT includes a multi-axis robotic platform for precise positioning and force application. Independently operated rotary and traction drives enable rolling-sliding motion with slip from 0 to 100% replicating conditions encountered in bearings, gears, railways and manufacturing operations. Crucial parameters like temperature, environment, speed, load, and specimen material or geometry can be adjusted to simulate real-world conditions. Fully automated testing enables ‘rapid characterization’ and mapping of lubricant Traction and Stribeck characteristics using entrainment velocity and slide-to-roll ratio parameters only.

Beyond traction, MTT offers modules for soft matter contact characterization with forces down to 20 mN, fretting behaviour with stroke down to 50 microns, tribocorrosion and surface imaging such as optical microscopy and 3D non-contact profilometry, thereby making MTT an indispensable tool for materials research and industrial applications.