It was with great pleasure that I attended the Wear of Materials 2009 conference which brought together the friction and tribology community. The conference took place in Las Vegas, Nevada between 19 and 23 of April 2009.
The conference started with a plenary talk about Wear mechanisms and mitigation strategies in microsystems presented by Dr. Mike Dugger from Sandia National Labs. This was a very interesting talk which described the path for future research in the field of MEMS wear.
Several sessions on wear of thin films and coatings, wear of polymers and sliding wear of metals and alloys followed.
Another interesting plenary talk was conducted by Prof. Allan Matthews from the University of Sheffield, UK. Aspects of tribological coating design and selection were disscused and analyzed.
I had the opportunity to present my work which was entitled: "Dry and wet sliding wear of ITO coated PET components used in flexible optoelectronic applications". This study will aid towards designing more reliable and wear resistant flexible devices that mwy be used in harsh environments and demanding applications such as space and solar energy.
Also, another paper was presented by Aaron Kessman, a PhD student from our lab, entitled: "Tribology of water and oil repelent sol-gel coatings for optical applications".
Nicholas Morris, another PhD student from our lab, presented a poster entitled: "Scratch and indentation of ITO oxide films on polyester substrates".
Dr. Stephen Kukureka from the University of Birmingham, UK, presented a paper entitled: "The wear and friction of polyamide 46 and polyamide 46/aramid-fibre composites in sliding-rolling contact.
A number of interesting papers were also presented during the course of the conference and awards for best paper and poster were presented during the conference lunch on Wednesday. A poetic about tribology was also presented, during the conference luncheon, by Dr. P.J. Blau.
The next WOM conference will take place in Philadelphia in 2011. See you there!!!
