The in-house ball-on-disk vacuum tribometer allows for in situ measurement of the wear track by digital holographic microscopy. This tribometer allow observing the evolution of the wear track in situ and in real-time. Equipped with different sensors the status of the tribological surfaces can be monitored and used for predicting failure modes. This gives great flexibility in investigating novel surface pairs in combination with developing an adequate predictive maintenance solution, thus mitigating expensive downtimes later in the field.

In Figure 1 an image of the system is shown. The setup allows for tribology investigations at high vacuum and high temperature (up to 800°C), which gives great freedom in assessing situation, which are close to the application's conditions. 

By using ideal material pairs, coatings and surface textures the tribological behavior can be improved.