If I told you that the actions of writing on a chalkboard, pouring your morning bowl of cereal, and ice skating all have something in common, you’d probably think I was crazy, right? Or at the very least, that I would have a lot of explaining to do.

Well it’s pretty simple, actually, if you give me a second.

They all have to do with a field of engineering called tribology. Derived from the Greek word “tribo” meaning “to rub,” tribology is the study of 1) interacting surfaces that 2) are in relative motion. By that definition, tribology inherits the study of friction and wear. The ice skate blade running through the ice, the chalk rubbing against the chalkboard, and the pieces of cereal rolling over each other as they are poured out of the box, all are interesting examples of tribology.

So why is this subject worth mentioning on a blog for healthcare innovation? Firstly, I get to give a shameless plug to my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, where I did research in the Tribology Laboratory. Secondly, tribology is an engineering field that has enormous practical importance in really all mechanical and biomechanical systems, yet has not been studied nearly enough.

Why so important? In their core, mechanical and biomechanical systems are all about movement. Movement has an obvious relationship to friction. It also is affected by the wear of the parts involved.

Did you know that hip replacements have proven to be the most successful and reliable orthopedic operation, based on greater than 90% of patients reporting improvement after the surgery? You can thank a tribologist for the artificial hip joint. The reason it works so well is because of the artificial hip joint’s low friction design. The femoral head and the acetabular cup are made from low friction materials, and the joint is lubricated with synovial fluid. This means that when you move your legs, there’s low friction and low wear in your hip joint. Success. But then guess what the main complication surrounding hip replacement is? The amount of wear over time. Medical experts know this as osteolysis – a tribological problem.

Even though tribological advancements have been made, tribology is still a subject that is severely untapped. It has been reported that the annual loss to industries in the US due to friction and wear is equatable to about 1-2% of the GDP. Think of every moving piece of every machine on every manufacturing floor running across the US: the more friction those moving pieces encounter, the more power is required to overcome it and run at specified levels. The more wear on those pieces, the more money is lost by having to shut down the machines and order new parts.

So why does the average undergraduate engineering student receive little to no education on tribology– the study of friction and wear!

I guess I’m hoping to spread the word of this unknown yet drastically important subject. So, engineers, do some more research on the subject. Recommend to students to look for tribology classes. It may help your company save money and resources. It may help spark an invention as powerful as the artificial hip joint. Plus, the next time you apply chap stick (yup, tribology…), you’ll know what field to give credit to.