The 3rd European Symposium on Friction, Wear, and Wear Protection was held in Karlsruhe from May 6 to May 8, 2014, under the auspices of the German Materials Research Society DGM. Since conservation of energy and resources is one of the biggest challenges for society and industry, sharing and expanding knowledge in tribology is an important cornerstone to reach that goal.

In that respect, with almost 200 delegates from 26 countries and 5 continents attending the conference, it was a great success and underpinned the organizers’ intention that the symposium would provide a forum for exchange of the International Tribology Community with German academia and industry. The scope of the conference has expanded and ranged from wear and friction phenomena, modeling and simulation, and friction materials in brakes and clutches to implant- and nanotribology. Materials ranging from ceramics and coating to polymers and PMCs were addressed in dedicated sessions. This special issue features nine papers that cover this range of materials and deal with the erosion of coatings, the wear resistance of alloys and composites, the effect of microstructuring of surfaces, the oxidation of tribological contacts, and the development of new tribometers to investigate tool wear. With this ongoing interest and rising participation the successful continuation of the symposium series beyond 2014 is guaranteed.

Acknowledgments

On behalf of the conference chairmen, I would like to thank the Scientific Programme Committee for their contribution in selecting the most interesting and novel abstracts. I also like to thank all plenary speakers (Dr. Somuri Prasad, Professor Markus Wimmer, Professor Staffan Jacobson, and Professor Dirk Bartel) who started the first day of the symposium with insightful overview lectures. Furthermore, I thank all speakers and poster presenters for sharing their latest research and interesting discussions. Finally I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of the DGM (Anja Mangold and Kristin Tonn) for the perfect organization of the meeting.

Martin  Dienwiebel
Matthias  Scherge
Michael  Moseler
Alfons  Fischer
Ken’ichi  Hiratsuka
Julien  Fontaine