Professor Ian Sherrington
Director: Jost Institute for Tribotechnology, Research Lead: School of Engineering
School of Engineering
Prof Sherrington’s research focuses on the ground breaking topic of “tribotronics”, the development of autonomous, self-adjusting components for mechanical equipment. He is currently Research Lead and REF co-ordinator for the School of Engineering and serves as Executive Director for the International Tribology Council (ITC).
Prof Sherrington’s is an acknowledged leader in the measurement/prediction of friction, wear and lubricating film thickness in machine components. His current research focuses on the development of active machine elements, a subject called “tribotronics”.
Prof Sherrington has been PI/Co-I for over 80 projects and authored/co-authored around 200 publications/patents. He has led and supported organising committees for a number of international events, served to assess grants/projects in the UK and overseas, acted an examiner for doctorate candidates and is an experienced Editor/Board Member for international journals and conference proceedings. Prof Sherrington was selected, along with nine other tribologists from across the world, to be presented to HRH Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace as part of the 50th Anniversary of Tribology in 2016. He also became the world’s first Professor of Tribotronics at KTH, Stockholm in 2018 and was a winner of the prestigious Donald Julius Groen Prize.
Current PhD Supervision:
- BSc (Hons) Physics, University of Liverpool, 1979
- PhD Engineering, Lancashire Polytechnic, 1985
- Thomas Parkinson Scholarship
- Thomas Stephen Tribology Group Prize
- Tribology Bronze Medal
- IMechE Donald Julius Groen Prize
- Tribotechnology
- instrumentation for the measurement and characterisation of surface micro-topography
- friction measurement
- wear sensing
- lubricant film thickness measurement and lubrication control in a range of applications
- Affiliate Professor of Tribotronics (KTH, Stockholm, Sweden)
- Executive Director: International Tribology Council (ITC)
- Deputy Chair (Chair elect): IMechE Tribology Group Committee (UK)
- Member: UK Tribology Operations Committee (UK)
- Member Editorial Board: Proc. IMechE Part J (Engineering Tribology). Sage Publications
- Member Editorial Board: “Tribology”. Frontiers Media.
Traditionally, mechanical elements such as bearings, seals & gears, are passive. Tribotronics is a novel concept where sensors and actuators are employed in components or systems to dynamically modify the performance of machine elements whilst they are in operation. The use of tribotronics turns a component into an intelligent device that monitors and controls itself to enhance its own health/life and performance. Such devices also have the potential to feedback information about their operating duty, performance and state of wear by various means. This leads to opportunities to control and manage these components and systems via the “internet of things”. This can be for either maintenance purposes, for machine learning reasons (to enhance the performance of other devices in a connected system) or for other aspects of performance enhancement.
Use the links below to view their profiles:
- Jost Institute for Trbotechnology
- Intelligent Machines and Maintenance
- Examples of current projects include:
- Next Generation Autonomous Machines: Intelligent Mechanical Sealing Systems
- Active control of piston-ring lubrication
- Professor Sherrington has acquired just under £1m of external funding to support research across a range of topics.
- Invited Speaker / Session Chair:
- NORDTRIB, ECOTRIB, Leeds-Lyon Symposium
- Organising committees:
- World Tribology Congress - International Advisory Committee Member 2021 / Track co-ordinator 2014
- LUBMAT - Chair Organising Committee: 2006/2014, Conference Co-Chair 2008, 2010, 2016, 2018, 2020
- COMADEM - Organising Committee Co-Chair: 2017,
- ProgMatCon 2020 - Track co-ordinator Symposium 3: Programmable surface interactions and friction
- Joint Congress: Emaintenance 2020 / COMADEM 2020 / ARMS 2020 (IAI 2020) - International Panel member / Reviewer
Telephone:+33 (0) 1772 893322
Email: Email:Professor Ian Sherrington
Use the links below to view their profiles: