23rd International Colloquium Tribology - January 2022 37 Tribology in the Age of Digitalization and Green Deal - Building Digital Services! Franz Pirker AC2T research GmbH, Wiener Neustadt, Austria Corresponding author: franz.pirker@ac2t.at 1. Introduction The potential for saving energy and reducing costs was the key reason to define tribology as its own scientific discipline. 55 years after the birth of tribology, digitalisation and the Green Deal are the drivers and challenges at the forefront of industrial development and take first place on the agenda of the European Commission. How can tribology position itself in the age of digitalisation? Which new digital tools and possibilities should be taken advantage of? What examples from other fields are there? In mobility, MaaS („Mobility as a Service“) is a good example of employing digital technology to develop a service that satisfies the needs of the population as well as the demands of resource efficiency and CO2 reduction. Additional requirements for the success of such services are a digital business model and the cooperation of different stakeholders. In the area of simulation and software, new business models and services are already well established - SaaS („Software as a Service“) being a prime example. The trend goes away from one-time purchases towards needs-oriented usage and the appropriate payment systems. With the European research project i-TRIBOMAT („Intelligent Open Test Bed for Tribological Materials Characterisation“), the path towards TaaS - Tribology as a Service - is presented. 2. Tribology’s impact on Green Deal The European Green Deal is a set of initiatives from policy side by the European Commission with the central aim to make Europe climate neutral in 2050.[1][2] An impact assessed plan will also be implemented to increase the EU’s greenhouse gas emission reductions for 2030 to at least 50% and towards 55% compared with 1990 levels. Lowering the friction and wear by developing new material solutions for tribological applications has substantial environmental effects and directs towards low carbon future. The study carried out on the influence of tribology on global energy consumption, costs and emissions, by Holmberg and Erdemir [3], concluded that in total, about 23% (119 EJ) of the world’s total energy consumption and 8120 Mt/ year of CO2 emissions originates from tribological contacts. By using new technologies for friction reduction, energy losses due to friction and wear could potentially be reduced by 40% in the long term (15 years) and by 18% in the short term (8 years). On a global scale, these savings are 1.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually and 8.7% of the total energy consumption in the long term and reduction in CO2-emission globally by 1460 MtCO2 can be achieved! Figure 1: Overview of the European Green Deal 3. Digitalization - a misunderstood word Digitization is usually understood to mean only individual new technologies like Digital Twin, AI Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain or similar. Therefore, digitization is often misinterpreted and misunderstood. A very accurate definition of digitalization has been published by Gartner, Inc. [4] “Digitalization is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.” Very illustrative examples of the implementation of digital business models are Google, Apple, Facebook Amazon, so called GAFAs. What they all have in common is a platform where the customer can use and buy services easily, quickly on a transparent cost basis. In the technological field, there are the first attempts at digital business models such as SaaS (Software as a Service). The ad- 38 23rd International Colloquium Tribology - January 2022 Tribology in the Age of Digitalization and Green Deal - Building Digital Services! vantage of SaaS is that the client does not need to install any software or have a computer with sufficient computing power to run simulations. The licensing models are also very customer-friendly; for example, you are only charged according to the number of simulations carried out. 4. From research project to service provider The funded European H2020 project i-TRIBOMAT develops new digital services which, already in the development stage, facilitate the rapid and cost-efficient selection of materials, as well as the prediction of the tribological performance of products regarding efficiency and lifetime. The project connects the entire tribological characterisation infrastructure of five European research centres and links it to an IT-platform using IoT technology. This allows the client to choose between over 100 different characterisation tools. The data is centrally stored and further processed in a newly developed cloud-based material database. The clients can access their data any time and can easily request an advanced analysis or create their own reports. Without needing a particular expertise, clients can carry out simulations in virtual workrooms, allowing them to use their material data to rapidly and cost-efficiently predict operational characteristics without constructing a prototype. All digital services can be customised and booked by the client on the web-based platform. The connection of infrastructures and the new digital services result in the emergence of Europe’s largest tribology centre (a joint venture of the five research centres), which offers and markets all services on a webbased platform. 5. Tribology as a Service - TaaS - The Platform i-TRIBOMAT - The European Tribology Centres core is a platform on which various services can be booked - from standardised tribometer tests and additional characterisation services (service 1) to data driven services (service 2) and simulations in virtual workrooms based on a SaaS concept (service 3) see Figure 2. Figure 2: Overview services and integrated workflow All 3 services combined are representing the integrated workflow to up-scale materials performance in a tribological component. If a customer wants to know how a new material performs in his component under operation, the material will be tribological tests, the test results and test data is stored in a secure manner and can seamless integrated into simulation models. These models are up-scaling the performance of the component with the input of real test data. These leads to an accelerated component development process saving time and costs for the customer. 6. Digital Business models - complete - not compete Thereby, i-TRIBOMAT wants to create the basis for the European Tribology Centre. Additionally, digital business models which enable the sustainable operation of the platform as an independent business have been developed. The B2B relation are shown in Figure 3, where i-TRIBOMAT will be the Single Entry Point for industrial customers. The partners are acting as service providers, depending on the kind of service. Figure 3: B2B Modell i-TRIBOMAT 7. Conclusion Digitisation is the opportunity and challenge that European industry must take on and utilise. You can’t think in terms of isolated methods and hypes like digital twins or simulation, but you have to build digital business models in order to be able to offer added value to your customers. Integrated platforms such as i-TRIBOMAT show the possibility of how even competing companies can reposition themselves together and thereby create a unique market place. References [1] COM(2019) 640 final; COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPE- AN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN COUN- CIL, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECO- NOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE 23rd International Colloquium Tribology - January 2022 39 Tribology in the Age of Digitalization and Green Deal - Building Digital Services! COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS; The European Green Deal, European Commission [2] ANNEX to the COM(2019) 640; COMMUNI- CATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGION; The European Green Deal, European Commission [3] K. Holmberg, A. Erdemir, Friction 5(3) 263 (2017) [4] https: / / www.gartner.com/ en/ information-technology/ glossary/ digitalization, downloaded 25.10.2021 Acknowledgement This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 814494, project i-TRIBO- MAT. More details: https: / / www.i-tribomat.eu/ .