Grease Concepts for the Future
At the UNITI Mineral Oil Technology Congress in March 2010, Karl-Josef Minis, Product Manager Greases, FUCHS EUROPE SCHMIERSTOFFE GmbH spoke on the future grease technologies for automotive applications. In his presentation he demonstrated that even though volumes of greases are tiny compared to oils in many cases it is a vital construction element.
Greases for modern automotive application are not just a simple consumable, but are a vital construction element. Therefore, in parallel to the development of new hardware components the requirements for greases have also continuously increased. In many applications only small amounts are used, therefore ensuring optimal performance is a real challenge.
OEM topics like the reduction of emissions, increased efficiency or the move from combustion to electric power trains are also relevant for the grease industry. On the one hand this creates new requirements and on the other, improved grease qualities are directly able to reduce friction and can contribute to a CO2
reduction.
consumption. Whether it is the wind shield wiper, an electrical adjustable mirror or a bearing, the applied greases are always expected to reduce friction.
Reducing maintenance work is also another major goal of the automotive industry, as nobody is willing to do service work on components like seats, steering, etc. Therefore, today greases are usually used in these “fill for life” applications. Additionally, the development of smaller higher performance components raises additional quality requirements for greases and as a result greases need to be able to cope with much higher temperatures. Also, greases need to be compatible with new emerging materials like plastics and elastomers and additionally they must dampen noise and vibrations.
Tomorrow’s dominant power train concept has not yet been decided, but all the experts agree that at least for the next 20 to 30 years the conventional combustion engines will continue to be the mainstream technology.
According to Minis, apart from today’s functional properties, there may also be a strong impact on the availability of raw materials from regulations and legislations like REACH, GHS or the ELV (end of vehicle life) regulation. Minis explains further that especially for new vehicle concepts, low friction is of highest priority - as lower friction is directly related to less energy
There is no doubt that alternatives will increase. It is not clear if hybrids, electric engines or fuel cell finally will win – at the moment this race is still open and there are still a lot of problems that need to be solved. For example: the electric engine needs to increase its range, probably by improvements to its battery systems and the fuel cell needs a hydrogen infrastructure. In addition, new power train concepts cannot be simply integrated in the current vehicle architecture. The same problem existed in the past when a carriage was first equipped with an engine. According to Minis, apart from the choice of power train the requirement of high performance greases will continue. For example the extremely quiet electric vehicle will increase the grease performance with regard to noise reduction.
As well as adapting greases to materials,
new grease formulations will be required. Globally, about three quarters of all greases today are lithium soap based. The lithium demand has increased up to more than 90,000 tons and will continue to grow in the future due to the electro mobility. Although it is expected that the lithium resources will last past 2050, it is important to look for appropriate soap replacements now. In Minis’ view, calcium soap greases are considered a good alternative.
Therefore Fuchs is planning to increase their amount of calcium based greases from currently 20% to 30%. Beside the development of improved calcium based greases, new synthetic complex soaps as well as completely new developments will be important for the grease experts.
Minis reiterated that greases have a big potential for the future and their importance may increase with more efficient technologies. So according to him we may find the new Fuchs developments of interest.
Finally, another interesting paper on greases presented by Nynas will be included at the next international UNITI Mineral Oil Technology congress scheduled for April 5th/6th 2011.
LINK
www.uniti.de
Email:
leber@uniti.de
10
LUBE MAGAZINE No.99 OCTOBER 2010
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