Carsten Gachot

Biblography:

Prof. Carsten Gachot is the head of the Tribology Research Unit at TU Wien in the Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering with around 32 group members. He is a material scientist (graduated from Saarland University in Germany) with a strong background in materials development. The research pillars of his team cover on the one hand computational materials tribology and on the other hand new 2D materials such as MXenes i.e. transition metal carbides-/nitrides-/carbonitrides as well as novel metal organic frameworks (MOFs) or even transition metal carbo chalcogenides (TMCCs) for applications in tribology in sheet metal forming, automotive and aerospace applications (e.g. James Webb Space Telescope or EUCLID) as well as specific vaccum purposes or even hydrogen environments for valves where we proactively collaborate with international industry partners and space organisations such as VAT, Plansee, Audi and ESA/NASA. These new materials are mainly applied as sustainable and “green” alternatives for conventional additives in lubricants or as coatings totally replacing oils or greases for machine elements. One rapidly growing industrial field with increasingly challenging operational conditions is e-mobility in ground transportation, where larger bearings have to be lubricated at much higher speeds and loads than the ones for traditional internal combustion engines. Additionally, as there are far fewer moving components in electric vehicles, components that have not been much affecting the efficiency of internal combustion-driven cars before having now a substantial effect on the total efficiency of the EVs. One of the critical contacts are the wheel bearings. The sealings for the wheel bearings are running under dry lubrication and here new and particularly resource-efficient solid lubricants could be used in the future to further improve the efficiency of EVs.

Host: Roland Larsson