Discovering science behind wear and tear.

It used to be, the standard axiom of maintenance management was "if it is broken, fix or replace it." Very little research went into understanding why things fell into disrepair or why tools wore out so quickly.

Sudbury entrepreneur Greg Dalton is applying his expertise in tribology to stamp out a niche for himself in the automotive industry.

Specializing in the area of tube bending, steel-sheet stamping and heat exchangers, Dalton counts himself as one of only three tribologists in North America devoting themselves to this type of research.

"Tribology (the term coming from the Greek word 'tribos' meaning 'rubbing') really is the interaction of surfaces," says Dalton, What I'm trying to do is reduce tool wear."

Metal stamping plants can churn out thousands of parts a day, but having to replace a die every two or three hours can cost upwards of $1,500 US.

"If you're not using the right lubricant or tool material you get high tool wear and defective ends."

A graduate of the University of Waterloo's mechanical engineering program, Dalton parleyed his connections in the auto industry while writing-his thesis, into launching a consulting service, TribSys Inc., a year-and-half ago.

The 48-year-old Halifax native left a non-profit research institute in Midland and moved to Sudbury when his wife accepted a job at Laurentian University.

He maintains an office at the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) at Sudbury's Cambrian College. An administrative assistant handles his affairs while he criss-crosses the United States, where the bulk of his work takes him.

He offers in-plant consultations, builds and sells friction-testing equipment and carries out research primarily for the Auto/Steel Partnership, a consortium of General Motors, Ford Motor Company, DaimlerChrysler and most of the North American steelmakers.

A business partner, who was a former researcher at an American lubricant firm, runs their Indiana office in the heart of the Midwestern steel belt.

Dalton says car manufacturers have spent "billions of dollars" trying with to develop a computer model to determine how metal springs back when hit with a punch, but they know little about frictional conditions on the surface, so they have bad little success, he says.

Some university academics in Europe have developed some theoretical perspectives, but none can apply them in a practical sense on the shop floor.

He backs up his analysis with a rigourous empirical approach involving a series of tests and thorough study of a particular manufacturing process by examining surfaces under a microscope and trying to understand how they interact.

The savings for a company from a $10,000 consultation, he says, is usually realized within two to six months by cutting lubricant costs in half and extending tool life by more than 10 per cent.