You’ve heard the expression. There are only two things in life that are certain: death and taxes. Some have suggested that the same applies to machinery. We all know that if a machine generates a profit, taxes will be levied on that profit. But how about death? Is machine mortality also inevitable?

Let’s take a closer look. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor emeritus and tribologist Ernest Rabinowicz, there are three things that cause machines to lose their usefulness (see Fig. 1): obsolescence, accidents and surface degradation. Without question, obsolescence is fundamental to the evolution of engineering and technology. The old must make way for the new. Yet some inventions have long life cycles, the grease fitting for example. Its design has changed little since Oscar Zerk invented it in the early 1920s, yet is still widely used today. The automobile, however, is dynamic and in constant flux. While the classic cars live on into perpetuity, most automobiles face practical obsolescence long before they are functionally inoperable.

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