To this point, the field of lubrication has been conceptualized using several noncontiguous modes of operation boundary, fluid-film, and dry and solid lubrication. Engineers and analysts have long had to deal with old evidence that many tribological devices, such as flat surface and centrally pivoted sliders, can act as viable bearings contradicting basic hydrodynamic theory.

Tribology of Interface Layers introduces a new concept wherein disparate modes are shown to actually be particular phases of a tribological continuum spanning a wide array of material...