For his outstanding and meritorious achievements in tribology and for his services to the subject, as a scientist, engineer and teacher.
The Tribology Gold Medal for 1984 is awarded to Professor Dr.-Ing. Heinz Peeken for his outstanding services to tribology, in particular for his successful efforts to have tribological knowledge incorporated in machine design and for his outstanding achievements in the promotion of education and research and the application of tribology in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Professor Dr.-Ing Heinz Peeken was born in 1925 and studied engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig from 1950 to 1954. After a period in industry, he continued with research work under the supervision of the late Professor Georg Vogelpohl, Germany’s most outstanding tribologist of his time, at the Max Planck Institute fur Reibungsforschung. In 1979 Professor Peeken was awarded a Doctorate of Engineering for his thesis “the Hydrodynamics of Journal Bearings”.
Appointed a lecturer at the Engineering College at Kiel in 1959, he became Reader in Materials Handling, at the Technical University of Braunschweig, four years later. In 1967 he answered a call to take up the position of Professor and Director of the famous Institute of Machine Elements and Machine Designs at the Rheinisch-Westfalische Technical University in Aachen, a position which he still holds with great distinction.
His scientific work is embodied within more than 125 papers and covers a large area of tribology, but especially journal and rolling bearings, toroidal gears, couplings and the physical properties of lubricants as machine elements. One of the world’s leading exponents of externally pressurised journal bearings, his numerous publications on this area alone has had a significant influence on machine design.
In 1980 he published the results of his extensive research on bearing lubrication in his famous paper: “A new method for reducing numerical effort for the solution of Reynold’s Differential equations for hydrodynamically lubricated cylindrical journal bearings”. This method has been adopted by researchers and designers in many parts of the world.
In his research, Professor Peeken paid particular attention to the “machine element” lubricant. His work included not only the influence on film formation of physical properties, load carrying capacity, friction and wear, compressibility, at loads in excess of 10,000 bar but also covered the viscosity, pressure and temperature relations and the foaming characteristics of lubricants.
Professor Peeken conducted extensive investigations into the vibration of gears, and especially the torsional vibrations in power take-off gears, which led to new avenues n design being explored. Some of his most notable work is in the field of dynamic behaviour and related loading of toothed gearing.
Professor Peeken identified as key practical problems the control of friction and wear in couplings and link drive systems, and produced scientific solutions that were readily understood by designers. His work on the deformation of machine elements under load, led to new insight into design requirements for the optimisation of load carrying capacity. He also developed new measuring techniques (high pressure chamber, vapour—phase deposited sensors) which made it possible for investigations to be carried out under extreme operating conditions.
During the whole of his career, Professor Peeken endeavoured to convey how existing and new tribological knowledge should be applied to the solution of real problems. His guidelines for the design of “Tribologically Correct and Maintenance Free Bearings” and his publication on the requirements and design of couplings, are two examples of his concern, as an engineer, to apply his scientific and technological expertise. In his papers on “Tribologically Correct Design” and “Tribology in the Design Stage”, he clearly showed that tribological considerations started at the earliest stages of design, and include those dealing with the areas of micro and of macro geometry of contact points.
Throughout his engineering work, Professor Peeken has demonstrated an extraordinary capability to apply his large and complex scientific knowledge to the solution of practical problems, and to formulate answers extraordinarily quickly. During the past few years he has been called upon more than one hundred times by Industry to solve problems, with involvement ranging from large motors to textile machines, from finite calculation of rolling mills to vibrational investigations of turbine alternators in power stations. He has acted as arbiter to decide problems of technical differences where his integrity and wide knowledge were vital ingredients of the success he achieved.
In spite of his high scientific and engineering standing on an international plane, Professor Peeken has never neglected strict and self-imposed duties as an educator and teacher. He insists on lecturing at least twice weekly and on assisting his students with their practical work. He was a determining factor in the integration of tribology into the syllabuses of professional engineering courses in the Federal Republic of Germany, and he developed special tribology and educational and training programmes for research and development, for maintenance, for manufacture and for marketing – all aimed at increasing professional proficiency in these areas.
In addition to his research, engineering and educational activities, Professor Peeken has been President of the (German) Society for Tribology (Gesellschaft fur Tribologie) from 1972 to 1977 and, as such, was responsible for and presided over the highly successful Second European Tribology Congress in 1977. His work and influence were instrumental in persuading the Federal Government to support tribological work, jointly with industry and universities, now covering over 200 projects and funded by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology in excess of DM 47 million.
In recognition of his outstanding achievements in the science and technology of tribology, the Gesellschaft fur Tribologie awarded him its highest honour, the Georg Vogelpohl Insignia. Professor Peeken is also a member of many national and international committees.
A quiet and modest man, a human being of the highest integrity, Professor Peeken is a scientist and engineer whose outstanding services to tribology and through tribology to science and technology, have made him one of the world’s great leaders in the field and one whose efforts in improving the quality of design through tribology have increased the wealth creating abilities of industry.
As winner of tribology’s highest honour for 1984, the Tribology Gold Medal, Professor Dr.-Ing. Heinz Peeken is a most worthy Tribology Laureate.