NTS Founder
Roger H. Rotondi,
B.S., M.M.E., M.B.A.
Consultant, Machinery Condition Monitoring
Founder of National Tribology Services
Mr. Rotondi is an alumnus of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated with a B.S. degree in Naval Science. He served four years aboard ship, two as a chief engineer of a destroyer, before leaving the Navy to attend Cornell University where he earned a Master of Mechanical Engineering degree. In 1971 he earned an M.B.A. from Fordham University.
After receiving his M.M.E., Rotondi worked at General Electric’s Knolls Atomic Power Lab for six years in Schenectady, New York, where he held various positions in Test Facilities Engineering. His business experience also includes three years purchasing technical equipment for National Bulk Carriers in New York City. Mr. Rotondi then moved back to General Electric where he worked three years marketing and selling equipment for the Marine Turbine and Gear Department.
In 1977, he was hired by Foxboro and sent to Paris, France to be their Manager of Marine Sales for Europe. His next position for Foxboro was as Product Line Manager of a technology area called Ferrography, a newly invented technique for separating metal particles, contamination and other particulates from used oil samples and analyzing then to detect and diagnose abnormal machine conditions.
After four years developing the ferrographic technology (metal particle detection) and applying it to industrial and military machinery monitoring, trending and diagnostics, he became President of Telus, Inc., directing the start-up company licensed to manufacture the ferrographic instrument systems. Telus’s lab provided oil analysis services to industry. In 1984 the ferrographic license and laboratory was acquired by Standard Oil Company (Ohio).
In August 1985, Mr. Rotondi left Sohio to form Rotec Sales Corporation, a sales representative company. Rotec offered instruments, software, and training in the field of machinery condition monitoring, often called predictive maintenance. Rotec offered products for vibration monitoring of machinery, oil analysis, shaft alignment, and infrared temperature monitoring.
In February, 1992 Mr. Rotondi founded National Tribology Services (NTS), an oil analysis laboratory location in Peabody, Massachusetts.
Because of the natural tie between oil analysis and vibration measurement, Mr. Rotondi gave Donald E. Bently of Bently Pressurized Bearing Company the first opportunity to purchase NTS because he said, “Bently has the best reputation in the vibration measurement field.” In May 2001, Roger Rotondi sold NTS to Bently; he then was an independent consultant for several years to Bently Pressurized Bearing Company and NTS assisting them to become technically proficient in the field of Machinery Condition Monitoring. He is retired and resides in the Boston area with his family.
Rotondi is the author of articles in various national technical publications on the subject of machinery condition monitoring, vibration analysis, oil analysis and ferrography, and has delivered papers to major professional societies, including AIPE, ANS, ASLE, ASME, and EEI.
National Tribology Services was renamed Bently Tribology Services (BTS) in late 2006.
Other Founding Fathers of Oil Analysis:
Augusta H. Gill, Ph.D.,
1864 – 1936: MIT professor, who was one of the first founding fathers of oil analysis to take this science from merely a theoretical study to practical application, testing, and dissemination through education. Founding member of the American society for Testing Materials, D-2 Committee on Petrolium Products and Lubricants. Authored A Short Handbook on Oil Analysis as well other publications.
John R. Battle, M.E.,
1889 – 1975: Pioneered the development of the first types of lubrication and oil handling equipment, which, with only minor design modifications, are still in use today. Further, in the early 1900's, he authored various practical handbooks for Lubricating and Industrial engineers involved in the study of oil analysis.
Vernon C. Westcott,
Vernon C. Westcott is considered the primary researcher and developer of ferrograhic technology, not only in the field of machinery wear analysis but also in Bio-Ferrography as it relates to cancer cell capture and identification. A 1960's Navy program to predict roller bearing failures prompted Mr. Westcott to realize that the wear particles, carried in the oil stream, could reveal the bearing condition. His magnetic separation device (analytical ferrograph) was able to separate the particles from the oil and produce an orderly mono-layer of wear particles that was viewed through a special microscope, providing a powerful window into the bearing condition. His continuing efforts in the 70's refined the ferrograhic methods, documentation, and instruments, including the direct-reading ferrograph. Ferrography continues to be a standard diagnostic tool today.