Preface to the Special Issue on Automotive Tribology

Abstract

While there is a gradual spread of cars driven by electric motors, there are still a number of studies and developments in progress to further improve fuel efficiency of IC engine cars. Tribology is very important, and the automobile is one of the most visible applications that show the great impact of tribology on energy and environmental issues facing the globe. A number of fundamental studies on friction materials and lubrication for automobiles are conducted and published. However, most of us do not know well about the applications of these fundamental studies and tribological matters in practical systems, because they are not available in the form of scientific or technical papers.The Japanese Society of Tribologists (JAST) publishes monthly the Journal of Japanese Society of Tribologists. Every issue contains a collection of review papers that introduces research and development trends on a selected theme. The themes are sometimes very basic and sometimes very practical. The journal uses Japanese language, and the majority of the readers are domestic members of JAST. However, many of these review papers are interesting and include information worth introduced to engineers and researchers outside Japan. The February issue in 2016 focused on “Automotive Resource Savings and Energy Savings” in Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of JAST. In the issue, the technologies for improving fuel efficiency of cars are shown in the light of various aspects of tribology.The editorial board of JAST has decided to publish English translated versions of these review papers on automotive tribology in this special issue of Tribology Online. The authors of five among seven review papers kindly accepted this plan. We also have eight original papers on automotive tribology, which have been newly submitted and accepted by peer reviews. We hope the readers in the world will find these papers interesting and useful.Tribology Online is an electronic online journal publishing peer reviewed original papers. For the benefit of authors and readers, Tribology Online is open to everyone for free access through the Internet. In order to ensure effective use of copyright, all papers published in Tribology Online in and after this special issue are open access and to be distributed under the terms of the latest version of the Creative Commons attribution license: Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND).