General

Moisture, temperature and rust are some of the factors that need to be considered before using the oil and additives give solution for all of them.

When an industrial gear spins, it moves one shaft along with another, or a spinning shaft with an element that moves back and forth. Gears let you change power, speed, force (torque), and direction. They can work in almost any combination of loads, speeds, temperatures, and working cycles in industry. 

Lubricants for gears and bearings make machines last longer by cutting down on friction and wear. Lubricants do more than just reduce friction; they also get rid of heat from moving parts. These industrial lubricant oils can keep bearings, gears, and seals clean by stopping deposits like rust and corrosion from forming. These things can stop the oil from foaming and keep air out of it, too. A lube that works well will lower the amount of power used and the noise made. These things can be enhanced by the use of additives. 

Challenges And Problems

More durable products and ones that last longer are two things that current customers want in a product. Modern materials and surface treatments are used in industrial gears to lower costs, boost power, and make them smaller and lighter. The modern gearbox, on the other hand, gets hotter and uses less oil to cool down. This makes the gears more stressed by heat and increases the loads on the bearings and gear teeth.

Conditions with high humidity, high ambient and operating temperatures, and air that is highly polluted with chemical fumes, dust, or grime can all make industrial gears work hard. Lubricant additives are the right way to use them because they can carefully remove dust particles from lubricants. Because speeds and loads can change, they can sometimes be higher than the gear values. To stop micro pitting, you need to use certain types of gear for certain tasks.

Trends In The Industrial Lubricant Industry

Lubricants for gears have to meet performance standards that are always changing. Unlike older lubricants, modern ones have to work in more difficult conditions and stay stable against rust, changes in viscosity, and heat damage. Gear lubricants that can handle higher power levels and operating temperatures while keeping things clean and stopping wear are what both manufacturers and customers are looking for. The durability of gears and bearings for longer service life, compatibility of materials, higher energy efficiency, use of environmentally friendly additives and base oils, longer drain times, and cost are some of the other things that need to be thought about.

There are many things that can affect how well gear lubrication works, such as the type of gear, the speed (lower viscosities are needed for higher speeds), the loading and transmitted power (higher viscosities are needed for heavy loads), the ambient and operating temperatures, the compatibility of the materials, contamination, the application method (splash or circulation), filtration, and the operating conditions.

An industrial lubricant needs to have the right viscosity at the right temperature in order to form an elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) film and get oil on all contact surfaces. But it also needs to be smooth enough at low temperatures, especially when the machine is first started up. It’s important that the material is chemically stable, can eject water, and can guard against extreme pressure (EP) and wear (AW).

The different rules that group and describe gear lubricants make sure that all of them meet the minimum performance standards set by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for their own goods and uses. Many people talk about the AGMA 9005-E02 standard, the most current version of which is AGMA 9005 F-16, and the DIN 51517 standard, which covers rust and oxidation (R&O) parts, R&O antiwear, and EP-type gear lubricants. Original equipment makers (OEMs) are asking for more and more thermal oxidation stability tests for industrial gear lubricants. The L-60-1 Thermal and Oxidative Stability Test ASTM D-5704 is one of these tests.

Base Oil To Use

When choosing a base oil, you should consider the temperatures, loads, and possibility of contamination of the equipment. Besides that, you need to look for the types and amounts of additives used in the mixture and the materials that the lubricant will interact with in the gears, bearings, and seals. You should also think about whether the base oil can be biodegraded. This is especially important for actions that will be done in places with strict environmental rules. Aside from the price of the base oil, other things that go into making lubricants are the costs of the additives and production, how much energy savings the lubricant can give, how often it needs to be drained, and how long it is expected to last.

The basic oil type has a lot to do with how well something works. The choice of base oil affects the viscosity and total thickness of the film in both the hydrodynamic and elastohydrodynamic regimes. What kind of base oil is used determines how well different additives dissolve and work with it, as well as how these additives respond when they are used. The oil industry’s choice of base oil affects how well the substance works with seals and other materials, how stable it is in water, how it behaves at low and high temperatures, how likely it is to foam, how heat moves through it, and how stable it is in both heat and oxygen.

Propane-based gear lubes use base oils from Groups I and II. Group III oils (those with polymers), esters, polyalkyline glycols, and polyalphaolefins (PAO) are all examples of synthetic base oils. Lubricant manufacturers mix mineral oils and synthetic oils together to make a semi-synthetic (synthetic blend with additives) base.

Base oils made from synthetic materials not only work great at low temperatures, but they also offer better safety against heat and oxygen when used in warmer places. Synthetic oils are better at moving heat, reducing friction, increasing shear strength, and lowering coefficients of traction compared to natural oils.

Additive Interactions And Workings

Gear oil additives interact in three ways: with the mechanical parts they come into contact with, with the base oil, and with each other. You must take into account factors like additive solubility and compatibility, shear stability, material compatibility, and filtration.

Harmonising the chemical composition of additives with base oil can lessen or eradicate problems with seal compatibility. The hardening and deposit formation that can cause seals to fail increases when they are worked at high temperatures. Deposits can form around the seal lip when gear lubrication breaks out because of heat stress. Because of these deposits, the seal material could have abrasions, cracks, or rips. Chemical reactions between the lubricant and the seal material can cause the seal to lose some of its elasticity and eventually leak. Some elastomer seals have the potential to plasticise and expand when exposed to incompatible lubricants. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) seals are the most often used and compatible sealing.