Tribology is the science and technology of friction and lubrication

“Tribology is the science and practice of interacting surfaces in relative motion and of the practices related thereto.”

This is the "tribology" the definition of words.

In general, tribology is the science and technology to study the friction, wear, and lubrication of two bodies in contact with the objective to control the friction and wear.

The scope of application of Tribology in moderm industry is not only to support all kinds of industries but also includes other areas closer to human life such as the medical field of human joints, the occurrence of earthquakes, and landslides.

Physicist Wolfgang Pauli said "God creates the solids, the devil their surfaces". To control the friction and wear of the contact surface interaction, physics, chemistry, material science, elasticity and plasticity, fracture mechanics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, medicine, biology, and other academics field including tribology is required. Therefore, "tribology" is regarded as " interdisciplinary and technology infrastructure" in all fields. Tribology is an "essential knowledge" in machinery. The role and importance of tribology must be fully understood for future design and development of machines.

This is because technology to control the friction and wear of contact surface is the key to increase the mechanical reliability and durability in the future. Many non-traditional technology was key to enable the contact surface of friction and wear control technology in the future. Control of friction and wear is necessary in every machine reliability and durability, energy and cost lost and performance limitation from giant space station to the tiny micro-machines. To contribute to saving energy and resource, high reliability and durability to ensure the presence and conventional force capabilities and performance of the mechanical design, future "design design of forms and material" together with "design of contact interface" is required. The result is the science and technology of "tribology".