Those working with tribology often have a background in mechanical engineering, while people working with lubricant development have a chemistry/chemical engineering background. This means they have a tradition of approaching problems in different ways. Today’s product development puts higher demands on timing and quality, requiring collaboration between people with different backgrounds. However, they can lack understanding of each other’s challenges as well as a common language, and so this book aims to bridge the gap between these two areas.Lubricants: Introduction to Properties and Performance provides an easy to understand overview of tribology and lubricant chemistry. The first part of the book is theoretical and provides an introduction to tribological contact, friction, wear and lubrication, as well as the basic concepts regarding properties and the most commonly made analyses on lubricants. Base fluids and their properties and common additives used in lubricants are also covered. The second part of the book is hands-on and introduces the reader to the actual formulations and the evaluation of their performance. Different applications and their corresponding lubricant formulations are considered and tribological test methods are discussed. Finally used oil characterisation and surface characterisation are covered which give the reader an introduction to different methods of characterising used oils and surfaces, respectively.

Laboratory experiments and full scale tests are conducted to verify and to quantify the advantages of the environmentally adapted oils in hydrodynamic lubrication in terms of operating film thickness, bearing power loss, and operating temperature. Four different oils were studied. Environmentally adapted PAO and ester base ISO VG46 oils were selected from Group IV and V stocks, respectively. Mineral ISO VG68 oil was selected as the reference oil. Mineral ISO VG46 oil was chosen for comparison. Ester base oil provided the best bearing operating characteristics in terms of the developed oil film, pad temperature, and power loss. Thus, it was chosen for the further tests in large full scale bearings. Environmentally adapted ester base oil ISO VG46 provided much better performance than traditionally used mineral oil ISO VG68. Compared to the mineral oil power loss and bearing temperatures are reduced while minimum oil film remains the same. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 15th International Colloquium Tribology - Automotive and Industrial Lubrication (Ostfildern, Germany 1/17-19/2006).

Research regarding environmentally adapted lubricants results of the research performed at Luleå University of Technology were positive. Thus, the formulation work of an environmentally adapted lubricant for hydropower applications started. A change to a synthetic ester based lubricant would give technical advantages as well as environmental benefits. The initial tests were conducted on the base fluid. Two turbine oils were developed, Turb Way SE and TurbWay SE LV, for hydropower applications. Oxidation tests were performed in both the RPVOT (ASTM D 2272) and in TOST (ASTM D 943). The stability of the turbine oil was > 20 times better than tested environmentally adapted hydraulic fluids. Field tests were conducted in a full scale turbine at Porjus hydropower plant to confirm the promising results obtained from the research in the tilting thrust bearing rig. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 15th International Colloquium Tribology - Automotive and Industrial Lubrication (Ostfildern, Germany 1/17-19/2006).