SOME ASPECTS OF SYNTHETIC LUBRICANTS

THE TERM “synthetic lubricant” has been adopted to designate a variety of fluids, derived from sources other than mineral oils, which have been developed by the technologist in order to satisfy the extreme conditions under which present‐day machinery has to operate : for example, high or low temperatures, or both, often with high bearing loads, and sometimes under conditions which demand resistance to ignition. Although, in fact, modern petroleum oils are prepared to such stringent specifications, and by such carefully controlled processes, that they are almost equally as “tailor‐made”, it is their comparatively limited temperature range that largely brought about the development of the so‐called synthetic product.