If you’re responsible for lubricating machinery in a plant or factory, choosing the right grease is important. Not all greases are created equal – some will withstand high temperatures, while others are better at resisting water and other contaminants. So how do you choose the right grease? Begin with understanding the components of grease and its properties. For starters, almost 70% of grease on the market is lithium soap-based grease! So, in this blog post, we’ll take a look at it and explain why it might be the best choice for your application.
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It is a highly versatile, multipurpose grease invented in the s. The product consists of mineral or synthetic oil and hardened castor oil fatty acids called lithium stearate or lithium salt. Lithium soap-based grease:
In almost all industrial sectors, it is the most preferred bearing grease.
Lithium soap is the thickener that turns the base oil into grease. So, it is best to compare lithium soap-based grease to those using other thickeners, such as sodium and calcium soap thickeners. In most cases, lithium soap-based greases offer so many advantages that the additional cost is easily offset by increased performance.
A few of its benefits include:
While lithium soap-based grease has a long list of benefits, it does also have a few disadvantages, including:
Simple lithium soap-based greases had been the mainstay of the industry until lithium complex greases became popular in the early s. Compared to lithium soap-based grease, lithium complex grease is more resistant to heat, water, and rust. Since lithium complex greases contain a second thickener component, known as the complexing agent, the dropping point is higher than that of simple lithium soap greases. Moreover, this higher dropping point than simple lithium soap-based greases, allows you to use lithium complex grease at higher temperatures.
The first major characteristic is mechanical stability, or shear stability, which is the ability of the grease to remain consistent under mechanical shear forces. Both lithium soap-based grease and lithium complex grease exhibit good shear resistance. This makes them an excellent choice for a variety of applications.
The solubility of the thickener determines the water resistance of lithium complex and simple greases. Water is still soluble in lithium hydroxide, but only in small amounts. So, lithium hydroxide-based thickeners have the same properties. As a result, it is resistant to both the absorption of water and washing by water. Other thickeners such as calcium and barium are more water resistant than lithium and lithium complex thickeners, but their negative qualities make them less desirable in a wide variety of applications. Furthermore, small amounts of polymer additives can be added to lithium complex and lithium soap-based greases to improve their water resistance.
Lubricating ability and storage stability are both influenced by the oil separation properties of grease. For grease to be useful, it must release enough oil in the contact zone on bearings or gears. However, it shouldn’t release too much oil during storage. Over time, if the oil separates too much in storage, it may be impossible for the grease to be reconstituted for use.
Lithium soap-based grease is such a multipurpose grease that you can use it for many applications. Here are a few of the suitable uses:
Redlist helps businesses stay informed about the condition and performance of their lubricants, including lithium soap-based grease. Redlist provides educational insights on the correct application of lithium soap-based grease, tailored to specific machinery requirements and operating conditions, ensuring that maintenance personnel are well-informed.
Choosing the right grease is crucial for equipment longevity. Redlist aids in this selection by analyzing equipment data and recommending the best lithium soap-based grease for each application, ensuring optimal performance and protection. Redlist enables businesses to scale operations by ensuring that lubrication practices contribute to machine reliability and longevity, reducing downtime, and fostering growth.
The choice of grease can significantly affect your business operations. Using lithium soap-based grease can lead to:
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Redlist enhances lubrication management by:
It’s hard to imagine a machine operating without grease in it, as the majority of dynamic machine operations run on bearings, which need grease for lubrication. Historically, the utilization of grease to lubricate a wheel and axle occurred just after the discovery of the wheel.
The first universal greases were crude forms of lime mixed with vegetable oils. These classes of grease continued to be used for almost all kinds of applications requiring lubrication until the industrial revolution.
However, in the last few decades, remarkable progress has been made in terms of machine design. This has affected operating parameters and thus the requirements for lubricating greases. As operating parameters like speed, load, temperature, etc., vary significantly based upon the equipment, it is practically impossible for a single grease to handle all the diversified applications.
Consequently, a large number of lubricating greases have been developed, resulting in thousands of greases on the market. The concept of one universal lubricating grease covering all types of applications no longer holds true. Also, from a selection and suitability standpoint, the vast array of available greases can make choosing the right grease a confusing process.
Lubricating greases basically are composed of a thickener (10 to 15 percent), base oil (80 to 90 percent) and performance additives (5 to 10 percent). The total global market size of lubricating greases is about 2.38 billion pounds and consists of lithium/lithium complex, calcium, sodium, aluminum/aluminum complex, calcium sulfonate, clay based, polyurea, etc.
By far the most popular greases worldwide are lithium-based greases with a market share of more than 75 percent. While various kinds of greases may be required in a particular plant, there have always been efforts to rationalize and minimize the number of greases from a purchasing and logistics standpoint. This likely has led to the development of multi-purpose greases.
In simple terms, a multi-purpose grease can be defined as a grease combining the properties of two or more specialized greases that can be applied in more than one application. For example, lithium grease can be applied both in chassis and wheel bearing applications of transport vehicles. Traditionally, calcium greases were used for chassis, and sodium-based greases were utilized for wheel bearings.
Calcium-based greases have been rated high for water resistance but poor for elevated temperatures. On the other hand, sodium-based greases better cover high temperatures but are not as good in regards to water resistance. When lithium greases emerged in the marketplace, they were found to be superior to calcium and sodium greases, and soon became the most popular multi-purpose greases in industry.
In modern machinery design and construction, machines operate under more severe conditions with the expectation of increased productivity and less downtime. This has made it difficult for lithium greases to satisfactorily fulfill these requirements. The National Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI) GC-LB specification, which is the most closely followed in the transport sector, also requires greases beyond just lithium 12-hydroxy greases.
Table 1. Comparison of fully formulated greases
These stringent requirements can be met by more efficient high-performance greases like lithium-complex, calcium-sulfonate, aluminum-complex, polyurea and clay-based greases. However, because of their compatibility with most widely used lithium greases, lithium-complex and calcium-sulfonate greases appear to be the best candidates of these high-performance multi-purpose greases.
Lithium-complex greases generally possess good stability, high-temperature characteristics and water-resistance properties. Other performance requirements like extreme pressure, anti-wear, rust and corrosion can further be improved by adding suitable additives. These greases also meet the NLGI’s GC-LB specification requirements.
Calcium sulfonate, by virtue of its thickener property, provides excellent water-resistance properties and does not break down even in the presence of water. However, limitations with calcium-sulfonate greases are their inferior pumpability and cost. Each option has its strengths, but your choice should focus on finding the grease that helps maintain or even extend the life of your assets without breaking the bank. In this way, you can lower total costs while helping your assets perform to their highest potential.
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