Industrial lubricants -- such as hydraulic fluids, industrial gear oils, turbine oils and greases -- are constantly evolving and evolving to meet the requirements of end-user applications, equipment manufacturers' performance requirements, and even health, safety and environmental regulations. With the increasing demand for high performance lubricants, while extending service life and oil change cycles, lubricants are required to minimize unplanned downtime of critical components in some major applications. This means that chemical additives are becoming increasingly important in the development of advanced lubricant technologies. Additive technology is constantly improved due to the occurrence of extreme conditions, the presence of pollutants, and the higher expectations of power output and efficiency.

As end-users demand higher lubrication performance, equipment manufacturers design equipment for higher efficiency, smaller size and greater power, which directly affects the size of the tank -- requiring smaller amounts of oil. Smaller fuel tanks and Oems require higher power output, resulting in shorter fuel life and ultimately reduced equipment life. These in turn are contrary to the needs and expectations of the lubricating oil and grease market which is developing towards longer life.

Making the design of industrial equipment the most difficult technical problems fall on the lubricants technology providers. This requires that modern lubricant technology has the potential not only to extend oil change cycles, but also to provide a higher level of protection for machinery and equipment while reducing downtime and increasing efficiency.

All aspects of machine and equipment design are increasingly influenced by a wide range of environmental and international regulations. The need for greater efficiency, lower energy consumption and lower environmental impact has led to dramatic improvements in equipment design and manufacturing in every branch of the industry.

In the context of the overall goal of continuously improving the environmental performance of lubricating oils and greases, coupled with the requirement in some areas to reduce the dependence on petroleum-based lubricants, for lubricants, facing the same requirements and challenges.

Hydraulic oil

The primary need of the end users of industrial hydraulic equipment is to reduce costly unplanned downtime to a minimum while extending the life of their components as much as possible. Hydraulic fluid technology maximizes the life of equipment by increasing oxidation life, reducing sediment formation, and utilizing reliable, durable, and anti-wear chemicals. Manufacturers of hydraulic systems and components are working to develop new standards, as past industry codes have fallen far short of today's requirements. These new specifications put forward higher requirements for anti-wear, thermal stability and compatibility of hydraulic fluids.

Industrial gear oil

Industrial gear oil is faced with a variety of working conditions, which puts forward unprecedented challenges to the formula of lubricating oil. Similar to hydraulic systems, industrial gear systems are increasingly designed to require larger loads and smaller sizes, and end users have higher expectations of component life. This means that lubricants have to spend more time with common contaminants such as water, dust and solid pollutants. The change of gear design metallurgy requires the resistance of gear oil to micro pitting. New lubricating oil technologies can provide greater protection for today's industrial gear applications. And with sealing materials, paint and other components of excellent compatibility.

Turbine oil

The design of power generation devices such as gas turbines, steam turbines and combined-cycle turbines is evolving towards greater efficiency and reliability. Lubricating oil has become one of the key elements in modern turbine design. Equipment downtime and component replacement costs are extremely high. High quality turbine oil must have good thermal stability and oxidation stability, while effectively preventing the entry of water pollutants, prevent rust and corrosion, and prevent the formation of harmful paint films. Paint film can cause the valve to stick, eventually leading to shutdown events.

grease

Greases, like liquid lubricants, will face similar hardware and environmental challenges. One of the driving forces for the development of the grease market is technological improvements, such as the requirement that some small components can operate at higher speeds and greater loads, in addition to the need for longer maintenance intervals, reduce grease consumption, more environmentally friendly and more reliable grease technology. That said, greases need to further reduce wear, improve stability, and address concerns about toxicity and chemical registration.

Grease produced by special additives can further extend the service life of grease and have better environmental adaptability. To achieve the ever-changing trend of higher goals, it is necessary to carefully select a single agent of grease to match higher oxidation resistance, so as to improve the life of the grease. As far as possible, grease additives should be selected to make the finished grease with low risk grade and less impact on the environment. In addition to environmental concerns, there are important regulatory considerations and ways to reduce waste by extending the refilling cycle.

Environmental protection

The use of plant oil base lubricating oil is becoming more and more common, but this kind of lubricating oil has the characteristics of oxidation stability and low temperature performance. Today, plant-based lubricants are being replaced by higher performance ester based lubricants, which have greater oxidation resistance and are comparable to mineral oil based lubricants.

The development of environmentally friendly lubricating oil technologies, the evaluation and optimization of additive technologies used in various biodegradable base oils, environmentally friendly lubricating oil technologies can further improve the energy efficiency of modern gearboxes and hydraulic systems.

Although the current bio-based greases only account for about 1% of the global production of greases, people have shown a rising interest in plant oil-based greases, due to the consideration of environmental regulations, but also because of the renewable resource properties of plant based greases and easy biodegradation.