This year, ESTL have an increasing presence in ESA’s Final Presentation Days, held at ESTEC. With a total of seven presentations over three days, three at the Gears Workshop on 25th March, and four over the two Final Presentation Days, on 26-27th March.
The Space Mechanisms Final Presentation Days provide an opportunity to showcase a complete overview of ESTL’s recently completed activities and also discuss and share opinions on research and development, technologies and approaches going forward with others within the industry.
*Due to the nature of the information that will be shared, the event can only be attended by participants from entities registered in an ESA Member State, Associate State or Cooperating State.
Our contribution to this year’s presentation day event is as follows:
- Ongoing and future activities in ESTL
ESTL’s Manager, Simon Lewis, will give an overview of ESTL’s 2026 R&D plans, including ESA‑selected work on long‑life bearing performance, hybrid lubrication advances, electrical grounding studies using MoS₂‑lubricated bearings, and tribometer research on MoS₂ behaviour under varying vacuum, humidity and environmental cycling—providing key insights for reusable spacecraft.
- Phenolic Cage Impregnation Process Variability: Lessons Learnt
Dr Michael Buttery will present a recent experimental study performed by ESTL into phenolic cage impregnation behaviours, focusing upon the impact of process parameter changes such as cage material, impregnation temperature, duration, fluid lubricant, and cage design. Results show that the oil uptake behaviour is highly dependent upon the specific process parameters used, and highlights the risks associated with the use of a single mass uptake value as a methodology to define successful impregnation of cages for fluid lubricated bearings.
- New Options for PFAS-free Creep Barriers
Typical heritage creep barriers used by the space industry are fluoropolymer solids suspended in a fluorinated solvent. However, the production and use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is presently under much environmental scrutiny within Europe, with prohibition on environmental grounds a very real possibility in the coming years. This presentation, given by Dr Michael Buttery, shall provide a summary of the current scenario for creep barriers within Europe, and present the recent work performed by ESTL to identify and demonstrate PFAS-free future-proof alternative technologies.
- Low Temperature and Transfer Film Behaviours of SLMs
Dr Matt Simpson will share new insights from ESTL’s cryogenic and vacuum testing of Self‑Lubricating Materials (SLMs), including surprising differences in material performance at –80 to –180 °C and promising synergies between SLMs and MoS₂ films. This talk highlights why tribology is truly system‑dependent and why representative testing is essential.
Click here for last year’s presentations, which are available to view in the ESTL Members’ area, if you’d like a refresher ahead of this year’s event. Be sure to check them out and get the most from this year’s sessions.
For those attending, we look forward to connecting.
