Lubezine Volume 8 * NOVEMBER 2013 - JANUARY 2014 | Page 24

TECHNOLOGY

FEATURE

GREASES

Fresh trends in grease
manufacturing processes seek
to improve performance

By Mehrdad
Vajedi
The writer has
more than 14 years
experience in
lubricants industry
and work with
some national
and international
companies in the
region.
He is now Director
of Permian Energy,
a trading company
based in Dubai,
UAE
E-mail: m.vajedi@
permian.ae
22

T

he lubricants market in
Africa is estimated to be
about 1.8 million tones, out
of which 3 per cent – or about
55000 tones – is estimated
to be grease demand. These statistics
underline the importance of grease,
which has often been neglected in
the field of Tribology throughout the
continent. In the recent past, grease
has gained importance due to the
main unique characteristics that make
it advantageous to be used instead of
liquid lubricants.

Definition of Grease
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) defines grease as ‘a solid to semi
fluid product of dispersion of a thickening
agent in liquid lubricant. Other ingredients
imparting special properties may be included’. Grease is a lubricant which has been
thickened to ensure that it remains in place
during operation of the equipment; it should
remain in contact with moving surfaces and
not be slung off by the centrifugal forces
and not leak out under gravity. Greases are
used where a mechanism can only be lubricated infrequently and where a lubricating oil
would not stay in position.
Generally greases contain 70-95 per cent of
base oils, 5-20 per cent of thickening agent,
and 0-10 per cent of additives. The main
classification type of greases is depending on
the type of thickening agents. Some of the
main classifications are as follows include:

LUBEZINE MAGAZINE | November 2013-January 2014