Case: Hardwood

With our help, also exotic woods can take bitter cold

One of our customers wanted to offer their end customers a new component in hardwood, and faced a serious challenge: when the temperature fell, the friction against an existing plastic surface increased.

They wanted a soft, smooth movement whatever the material and temperature. We were asked to find a lubricant film that could reduce the friction. We began by making test specimens of the materials in question for our tribological testing machine. Using a new oscillatory* method, we could then measure the static friction in the temperatures specified by the customer.

Solution found in our test lab

But we too had a challenge. We tried the products we normally use to reduce static friction in our own test lab, but they didn’t meet the customer’s demand specs. So instead we tested a grease that had just been developed with one of our suppliers for another customer. With this, the static friction at -35°C turned out to be far less than with our other products.

And when the customer did their own tests in a climate chamber, they got the same results. So now, also exotic woods are perfectly happy in the bitter cold.

Sector: Automotive

Added value: The customer can now have a wider range of furnishing details: Plastic, metal and hardwood with the same smooth feel of quality

Products and services:

Lab and testing
Product development
Products in Glue/Lubricant/Other

Did you know…? * Oscillation entails to-and-fro movements. Put simply, the static friction is measured in each turning point during an oscillating movement – rather than just measuring the movement on start-up from stationary.