ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses various aspects of self-lubricating materials from the perspective of research and engineering applicability, detailing the advancements in self-lubricating technology and analysis techniques that led to the advancements and their widespread use. The need for lubrication arises when the tribological applications in mechanical systems become severe and challenging to control friction and wear. In most tribological applications, liquid or grease lubricants are utilized to struggle between friction and wear. The role of lubricant is to facilitate the relative motion of solid bodies by minimizing friction and wear between interacting surfaces. High-performance ceramic composites are being investigated to eliminate the earlier existing conflicts between mechanical and tribological properties such as poor mechanical properties and high friction coefficient. Although mechanical testing goes hand in hand with composites of self-lubricating materials, when it comes to coated self-lubricating materials, it has to be understood that the material surface characteristics are defined by the coating methods and their effectiveness.