Properties to Consider While Choosing Lubricant Grease of Any Brand
What is Lubricant Grease?
Humans have been using lubricants to grease things for decades. When someone uses the term grease, they refer to a lubricant that is used for bearing systems, heavy equipment, or pivot points on the steering gear. The base oil of grease is either synthetic oil or petroleum. Lubricating grease consists of 80% of base oil, 10% of thickener and the remaining are additives.
Formation of grease requires various formulations between –
- Base oil
- Thickener
- Extreme pressure
- Additives
- Solid lubricant
- Antioxidants
- Friction modifiers
- Tackifiers
Most users know how to select the right lubricant because the same is also used in cars and other vehicles. Many of us have machinery like mowers at home which also require a good quality lubricant to run smoothly. When we look for a lubricant, we consider viscosity, additives, base oil, and environmental conditions in which it will work.
Bisley International is a privately owned company found in Houston, Texas provides quality raw material all over the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Oceania. They provide fine chemicals to bulk raw materials to regional manufacturers. They have been in this business for the last 65 years and have gained the trust and worldwide. Their products include agrichemicals, construction, and building materials, steel, welding, water treatment, plastics, aluminium, foundry, ceramics and refractories.
Selecting a grease requires to look into various specifications. If you understand how to choose appropriate grease, then it improves the quality of the machinery.
Factors to Consider in Lubricant Grease
Mentioned below are some of the properties that play an important role while choosing a good quality grease –
Viscosity
Viscosity of base oil is an important property for any lubricant. However, often we overlooked it when it is about grease. The viscosity of any base oil is calculated with a formula that includes the speed and dimension of the bearing. Generally, all-purpose grease will have a viscosity of ISO 460 or higher.
Base Oil
The base oil type is decided to depend upon the condition the grease has to perform. It is related to load, high or low temperature, and pressure. Extreme pressure and anti-wear property will also affect the additive type along with base oil. Mineral-based oils are good for constant temperatures, but synthetic base oil is good for different temperatures and other environmental conditions.
Thickener
Thickener is not the lubricating part of grease, but it is a sponge that keeps the lubricant in place. There are many types of thickeners in the market like lithium, polyuria, lithium complex, and aluminium complex, but not all are compatible with all types of machine and therefore they should not be mixed.
Grease is used in most machinery and therefore they’re the most important part of the machine. Some of the machines that work smoothly with the help of grease are cables, rolling bearings, plain bearings, linear bearings, ball screws, seals, etc. All these parts work in different environmental conditions and temperature. For those reasons, all properties must be looked thoroughly before choosing lubricant grease.
So, now you know that grease is not just ordinary stuff, but an engineered lubricant designed for specific things for certain applications. It is easy to select the right product irrespective of the brand if you know the right properties to consider.