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Production Process Engineering Lab
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A tribology lab that creates and evaluates functional surfaces that reduce friction and wear.
AboutAbout the lab
Creating functional surfaces for next-generation machines.
The Tokoroyama Lab, building on tribology (the study of surfaces, contact, friction, wear, and lubrication), researches how to give machine surfaces new functions.
The lab aims to understand phenomena that occur at surfaces and contact interfaces and to connect that understanding to solutions for societal challenges in materials, lubrication, energy, mobility, and medicine.
It works on creating carbon-based thin films with low friction and long life, observing wear particles, and conducting friction tests in high-temperature, high-pressure environments.
Through research, the lab also places importance on developing people who can find and think through problems on their own and solve them in cooperation with others.
Key terms
- Tribology
- The study of friction, wear, and lubrication that occur between two surfaces in contact and in relative motion. It underpins cars, information devices, and medical devices.
- DLC film
- A thin film of carbon (diamond-like carbon) with properties similar to diamond. It is hard, wear-resistant, and low in friction.
- Wear particles
- Tiny particles produced when surfaces rubbing against each other wear down. When they enter the contact interface, they accelerate wear further.
NewsLab news
A master's student received the Best Award and the Excellence Award at the Undergraduate Research Contest of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
The Tokoroyama Lab was launched
ResearchResearch themes
Based on tribology, which deals with surfaces, contact, friction, wear, and lubrication, the lab creates functional surfaces for next-generation mechanical systems and evaluates how they perform. In tribology, not only geometric design but also “surface design,” meaning control of the structure and chemical state of material surfaces and of the lubrication state, has become important.
*Illustrative imageLong-lasting carbon films with low friction
This research adds other elements to hard carbon-based thin films such as DLC films and, focusing on how carbon atoms bond and on the chemical changes that occur on sliding surfaces, creates surfaces that have very low friction in air and last a long time.
*Illustrative imageWatching wear particle movement with fluorescent particles
Using a testing machine that employs fluorescent particles (iFLAT), the lab observes the conditions under which wear particles in lubricating oil enter the contact interface and how they flow, and applies the findings to the design of longer-lasting machines.
*Illustrative imageFriction in high-temperature, high-pressure liquids
Using an autoclave-type friction tester, the lab investigates how DLC films experience friction and wear in high-temperature, high-pressure liquids, which are difficult to reproduce in ordinary air, with the aim of establishing design guidelines for surface materials.
MembersFaculty
The Tokoroyama Lab's members consist of faculty, secretaries, technical staff, PhD, master's, and undergraduate students, and research students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorTakayuki Tokoroyama
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Engineering Labs- Prototype Development Laboratory (PDL) (KSC-20201021-PH-JBS01 0259)” NASA Kennedy Space Center / NASA/Ben Smegelsky / Public domain (cropped)
- Long-lasting carbon films with low friction: “Diamond-like carbon coated cobalt ball” Drac2000 at English Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Watching wear particle movement with fluorescent particles: “Stainless steel 1.4034 X46Cr13 bearing ball 60mm G100 removed camera” Stainless_steel_1.4034_X46Cr13_bearing_ball_60mm_G100.jpg: Lucasbosch derivative work: Bobek / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Friction in high-temperature, high-pressure liquids: “Glass Pressure Reactor” Rudyher27 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Micro-Nano Process Engineering Lab): “MEMS ( )” Christopher/NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Machine Dynamics Lab): “Francis Turbine High flow” The original uploader was Stahlkocher at German Wikipedia. / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Production Engineering Lab): “Machine Shop Men GPN” NASA Headquarters - GReatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Complex Fluid Engineering Lab): “Rheometer” Olivier Cleynen / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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