European Lubricating Grease Institute (ELGI) Annual General Meeting (AGM) - June 1999 Oslo, Norway
European Lubricating Grease Institute (ELGI) Annual General Meeting (AGM) - June 1999 Oslo, Norway
Keywords: Lubricants, Greases
The 1999 AGM of the ELGI produced a useful forum for an exchange of views between those engaged in grease development, users and marketers. A large number of different topics were covered and the following comments are an attempt to capture the flavour of this important meeting.
Shell Research presented a paper on "Environmentally acceptable thread compounds". This emphasised the work carried out to formulate non-heavy metal compounds containing products for the offshore drilling industry. Some producers of this product type have had difficulties in getting these non-API compounds into service. Unfortunately this paper did not seem to lead to any conclusion but merely covered development work results. We know we can produce "green"thread components but care any non "captive" oil industry people actually using them and are field results available?
King Industries reported on methods of testing the rust protection offered by greases. Readers may be aware that ASTM-D-1743 has been used for years but has been criticised in recent times as not providing an insight into the dynamic situation as can be obtained from IP 220. However from the work done, the use of 5 percent synthetic seawater will provide good correlation between the static and dynamic tests. A couple of other interesting points were that not all greases of the same thickener type have the same corrosion resistance. Also the performance of corrosion inhibitor is different depending on which grease thickener is used. Is the additive attached to the liquid or solid? More work is planned which could hopefully lead to an improved, cheap, static test, which can reliably replace the expensive Emcor.
Two papers from Condat and Dow Corning taken together provided a very good background to current understanding of the use of solid lubricants. Dow Corning suggesting in their paper that improved performance is obtainable if "Polarised graphite" is used to improve the solid lubricants affinity for metal substrates.
However these two excellent papers were followed by a thought provoking contribution from Axel Christiernsson which suggested that alternatives to conventional solid lubricants are possible. This paper is included as an article in this issue of ILT.
Lulea University presented the results on some work done involving automatic rail flange lubricants operating in arctic conditions. Results obtained suggested that environmentally friendly lubricants, including graphite free,could be used without risk of increased wear. For Sweden the automatic equipment is not used all the year round because of the cold conditions. Further work is needed to convert the ideas in the paper into a practical formulated product,which will be usable all year and reduce rail wear.
The Shell paper on "Low noise greases" described the Shell noise test together with examples of similar test rigs used by bearing manufacturers. Clearly low noise greases are an increasingly important development in some sectors of the grease market place. It would be nice to think that agreed industry tests could be established sooner rather than later to avoid pointless expensive duplication in measuring the same parameter in different ways. The Shell paper highlights the urgent need for co-operation between bearing manufacturers, users and grease developers.
Some conclusions were presented as a result of work done by the ELGI Packaging Working Group. Its difficult task is to attempt to rationalise the types of grease container and their fill contents across Europe. This is clearly a long task but some fundamental new recommendations were made which if supported should benefit all in the long run.
The Technische Akademia Esslingen outlined the various national standards for greases. It was shown that many equipment manufacturers take these standards but then add various extra requirements. The view was that in many cases there was no practical need for these extra requirements. Clearly a closer relationship with equipment designer is needed if proliferation of unnecessary specification is to be avoided.
Two papers from Shell covered the important topic of lubricants for food processing machines. Detailed reports were presented on the lubricant requirements and the types of product available. The relevant authorities'reaction to these products and relevant regulation covering use were also highlighted.
The last paper was presented by Mobil and reported on their development of improved lithium complex greases. This work will enable the company to offer an improved range of complex greases produced using an economically acceptable manufacturing process.
This ELGI meeting lived up to the high standard established in previous years and all papers presented provoked lively discussion and comment from the participants. Hopefully at the next meeting we will see reports of the development work undertaken being converted to market place products.
