Rob Rowntree  – Director

It is a pleasure to join RGL Associates and renew my working relationship with Mike. My interest in tribology started in 1972 whilst scraping white metal bearings as an apprentice. It continued though university as a PhD student of Jack Archard and then into my working career, first as an engineer, and then Head of the European Space Tribology Laboratory culminating as a consultant in the UK’s National Centre of Tribology. I have worked on bearings systems literally from deep sea to deep space applications.

More recently, I was a bearing specialist at the Technology Centre of Vestas Wind Systems. My focus for the last 8 years has been wind turbines and my passion is to ensure that this rapidly evolving technology achieves its full potential through the reliable and predictable performance of all the bearings systems therein.

Mike Lewis  – Director

I worked at the National Centre of Tribology until 2015 completing over 400 contracts for industrial clients covering performance, reliability, life and failure of plant and machinery of all types. I have specific expertise in rolling bearings, particularly larger ones used in marine podded propulsion systems and wind turbines.  I have authored technical papers on bearing fatigue, organised several seminars and am actively involved with UK universities who are carrying out relevant research.

I am particularly interested in the limitations of current codes such as ISO 281 that form the basis of life estimation, especially as many bearings fail well within their projected life. I am a strong believer in getting the design right from the outset, rather than relying upon condition monitoring telling when things are going wrong.