Enhancing your company’s profile and maximizing its ability to tap into the services of the lubricant industry’s premier technical society is what STLE’s Corporate Membership Program is all about. Becoming an STLE Corporate Member means access to many of STLE’s best marketing features, educational offerings and professional networking services—all at significant savings to your company.

Already a value-rich benefits structure, STLE’s Corporate Membership program has been enhanced to offer an increased number of reasons to join. Both the CM Basic program and the new CM Premium option extend a variety of opportunities to connect with the Society and raise your company’s profile

Thank you for your interest in a STLE Certification Exam.  

Our new online Webassessor program allows you to be in control of where and when you take your exam.  This option allows candidates to take STLE certification exams at home on their personal computer at a time and date that works best for them. This delivery method requires a  secure internet connection, webcam, and the ability to download the lockdown browser on your personal computer.  

Online exams offer the ability to tag questions during the test for further review, and displays a list of these at the end of your exam so you can go back and double check your work.  Exam results and feedback are immediate upon your submission.

Please complete the eligibility form and application. and further instructions will be sent to you regarding how to make your exam payment.  STLE Certification Department

Individuals must satisfy at least 4 of 14 requirements by providing documentation for each and pay a renewal fee.  You may save your work and list your requirements as you complete them.

Requires a current official school transcript.  Available to full-time undergraduate or graduate students in an accredited academic institution majoring in physics, chemistry, engineering or other related technical or scientific disciplines.

Each month TLT publishes a short interview with an STLE member or intriguing person in the lubricants/tribology community. The person should have an interesting job or be considered a leading figure in his or her field.

There are no restrictions on who is a good candidate. Subjects can come from any area involving lubrication engineering or tribology—manufacturers, engineers, sales/marketing personnel, academicians, researchers, search-firm executives or industry leaders.

Please identify an interesting person whom you think would make a good subject for a 20 Minutes interview. Contacting this individual to see if he or she is willing to be profiled is mandatory before submitting their name. This also is a good time to ask the individual about key topics to discuss.

You should provide the person’s name, organization, job title and the reasons why you think this individual would make a good interview subject. In addition, please provide 4-5 “starter” questions to get the interview rolling. The questions you submit should relate to the person’s work or research. The idea is to find an engaging person and get him or her to discuss the technical aspects of their work. Please let your candidate know that he or she also will submit questions, guiding the direction of the article, and have final approval of the content. Click here to read a 20 Minutes interview article from 2022.

Questions should not relate to the person’s hobbies, family or non-work related interests. 20 Minutes is designed to be an informative article that provides technical information.

Each TLT feature article should be an in-depth exploration of a technical aspect in your area of expertise. These articles should include interviews with individuals who are technical and/or industry leaders in their field.

However, feature articles do not necessarily have to be about something new. They also can include a focus on important concepts or information that, while not new, have stood the test of time. Many STLE members are novices to the field of lubrication and need exposure to established ideas, concepts and information. TLT feature articles are an excellent place to discuss new ideas and developments and/or debate current theories or accepted practices.

Often features can be on a highly specific, narrowly defined topic. Identifying and describing a trend in lubrication engineering is an excellent concept for a feature.

Feature articles should be objective in nature and explore all sides of a technical issue. Sharing information and letting the reader make up his or her own mind is a good approach for a TLT feature article. Articles should not focus on specific brands or mention manufacturer names.

TLT feature articles should describe, discuss and debate:

• New ideas, concepts and theories
• Emerging technologies
• New procedures
• Trends relating to the group’s area of expertise
• Issues of current interest.

Sample headlines from past TLT features include:

• “Selecting Rolling Element Bearings for Modern Applications”
• “Clean Grease is not An Oxymoron”
• “Rethinking the Base Stock Equation”
• “Hard-driving Lubrication: The Tribology of Computer Hard Drives”
• “The Future of Sealing Technology”
• “Air Compressor Lubricants: The Next Generation”
• “Nanotribology: The Science of Thinking Small”
• “Gas To Liquid: Transforming the Future of Lubricant Production”

This TLT editorial component is a short monthly survey of STLE’s membership. The idea is to elicit opinions, recommendations and information relating to a topic that most or all of the magazine’s readership can address.

Each month’s Sounding Board is comprised of three or four questions, all of which should address the same topic. The first type is an open-ended (opinion) question that requires a written response. The second type is a quantitative question that can be answered by checking a box, either Yes/No or multiple-choice.

Examples of open-ended questions:

• Please describe the most impressive piece of technology you’ve encountered in the past year.

• Please describe a recurring tribology headache you’ve encountered and the resolution of the problem.

• Briefly describe your organization’s success in establishing and using lubrication-scheduling programs.

• Please describe any techniques or practices that have helped you control contamination of lubricants.

• Please describe a tribological problem that you solved using synthetic lubricants.

• Please describe the greatest benefits to be derived from the development of a multipurpose/universal oil.

Examples of quantitative questions:

• Other than cost, have you noticed any negative effects when using synthetic lubricants? Yes/No

• What is the single greatest source of contamination? 

• Enters through seals
• Added through other lubricants
• Internal generation through rust/corrosion

• Which statement best describes how easy it was to implement your lubrication-scheduling program?

• Piece of cake
• Some bumps in the road
• Turf wars with people who want to do things “the old way”
• Nightmare on Elm Street: Part VIII

• Do you think dedicating resources to develop multipurpose oils/fluids is a good idea, or should those resources be devoted to other resource projects?

• Develop multipurpose oils
• Devote those resources to other research projects.