KEEPING PACE WITH DESIGN: Development of Marine Lubricants for the future Low‐ and Medium‐speed Engines

The low‐ and medium‐speed diesel engine design changes that have taken place to date, and are predicted to continue for the foreseeable future, present the marine diesel lubricant with a difficult environment which is expected to become more severe with respect to both wear and cleanliness performance, on account of increasing specific power output and wider use of lower grade residual fuels. This article describes in some detail the main in‐house laboratory rig and engine techniques and procedures which have been developed by the Authors' company for assessing the important aspect of wear control; it highlights the special techniques used during shipboard testing for determining cylinder liner and piston ring wear and shows that the results from field testing correlate with those obtained from the in‐house tests used to develop the latest generation of superior quality marine diesel lubricants.