In recognition of his outstanding achievements as researcher, teacher and promoter of tribology, especially in the development of an energy approach for the determination of friction and wear.
Professor Fleischer was born in 1927 and studied at the Technical University of Dresden. After graduation he became an assistant and later head assistant of the Laboratory for Bearing and Lubrication Technology.
He received his Engineering Doctorate in 1961 for a thesis on “Contribution to the experimental investigation of the influence of lubricants on the stick-slip phenomenon” and in 1965 he obtained his Doctorate of Science (Dr.Ing. habil).
In the early 1960s, as part of the newly founded Institute for Rolling and Journal Bearings in Leipzig, Professor Fleischer established a special section on Journal Bearings and Lubrication Technology. Contemporaneously, he undertook teaching assignments at the Technical University for Heavy Machinery at Magdeburg, where he is now Professor for Design and Tribo-engineering, and where he founded the well known Magdeburg Institute for Machine Elements and Lubrication Technology.
Even as a student, Professor Fleischer was interested in friction, wear and lubrication. As a young scientist, he took an active part in international conferences on the subject, including the 1957 and 1960 Conferences in London. When the British Jost Report established the new concept of tribology, Professor Fleischer became its leading light in the education, research and promotional sphere and a principal contributor in the establishment of tribology as a scientific discipline in the German Democratic Republic.
Professor Fleischer considered the most important part of tribological research to be the creation of scientific basis for the calculation and control of friction and wear. He systematised the study of friction, wear and surface integrity, taking into account thermodynamics and modern materials knowledge. Under his leadership and with his active participation, the energy approach to the calculation of friction and wear of interacting surfaces in relative motion was developed. Professor Fleischer successfully synthesised previous basic theoretical and experimental work to devise an analysis of friction and wear processes from a point of view of energy, based on the recognition that such processes were of a complex physio-chemical nature, i.e more complex than normal mechanical processes.
In his book “Wear and Reliability” (1980) he enunciated his “first rule of wear”, establishing the relationship between thermodynamics and friction and wear, and the density of the energy of friction. In this work he established the expression e*R which is now known as the “Fleischer Energy Factor”
Professor Fleischer did not limit his work to the new theory. He engaged in other theoretical but specially much applied work in the fields of abrasive wear, ball and roller bearings, new lubricants and additives, self lubricating bearings and new methods for testing tribological materials.
The use of computers, which allow quantification of many previously unknown factors, enabled important results of Professor Fleischer’s research to be stored and utilised. His Monograph on “Wear and Reliability” published in 1980, has become an important part in the curriculum of young engineers, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
During his activity at the Institute for Rolling and Journal Bearings, the transfer of the findings of his research work into practice resulted in a whole series of solutions of important triboloical problems, for instance the design of self-lubricating journal bearings, the operational reliability and increase in loads of high capacity bearings, the optimisation of material pairing of different types etc.
Professor Fleischer is primarily a design engineer of machines, who regards tribology as an important and integrated part of design. In line with this approach, his scientific and engineering research works are presented in a form that is clearly understandable by practising engineers and technicians.
As a teacher, he developed educational courses and research areas in tribo-technology as an extension of the practical training of undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is affectionately known as the Godfather of Doctors and Supporter of Young Scientists.
Professor Fleischer is author and co-author of numerous papers. He has for many years been a member of the Research Council of the German Democratic Republic and is a Founder Member of the Commission on Lubrication Engineering of the Council of Engineering (Kammer der Technik). He is chairman of the Central Group “Friction, Lubrication and Wear” of the German Democratic Republic. He is a co-ordinator of the international cooperation, as well as a successful specialist consultant and arbitrator for industry. He has headed many missions, governmental commissions and committees.
From his early days as a student to his present position of eminence, the whole life of Professor Gerd Fleischer has been a life for Tribology. The originality and importance of his scientific work and his success in applying the result of research in practice, and the promotion of Tribology nationally and internationally have been most significant.
His influence on the development of Tribology, on Science and Technology in general and on Design Engineering, and through all his achievements in these fields on the economy of his country, has been profound. Professor Gerd Fleischer is indeed a worthy recipient of Tribology’s Supreme Award, the Tribology Gold Medal for 1989.