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Strub Automotive Lubrication

Product News Thursday, August 27, 2009: Strub-SA cc

 

Today's automotive industry has many challenges regarding lubrication, never before has there been so many different manufactures of vehicles with different horsepower and abilities. Strub offers you a wide range of lubricants to cover most vehicle's requirements, this includes diesel and petrol powered, turbo and non turbo. We manufacture our lubricants with the newest in technology and to the most current specifications like those from the API and SAE. We offer engine oils that can increase your service intervals and running cost. Our lubricants protect and clean your vehicle's engine with special additive packages formulated to extend the life of Today's modern vehicles and improve performance. We also have a range of heavy duty oils for Today's high performance diesel vehicles working under extreme conditions where high loads are also expected. We cover all grades for all your automation needs.

High performance automotive grease is also in big demand today, this is where Strub excels with our premium range of grease products for the automotive industry. We have a grease for any application. They include general purpose greases for lubricating bearings, high load greases and high temperature greases for any vehicle and purpose. Our grease products are manufactured to the highest standards to resist separation, contaminants, rust and wear. With quality base oils, thickners and unique additive packages you can be confident in our automotive grease range, meeting various standards like NLGI, DIN, ISO and ASTM.

AUTOMOTIVE LUBRICANTS

Automotive lubricants of today are remarkable oils that are capable operating in extreme conditions. In one country engine operating temperatures can vary from -40C to 250°C, in the same day! Further more the oil in your engine has too cope with extreme engine pressures and contaminants like metal particles and soot and last for up to two years without braking down. The oil in your engine also has to be much more friendly towards our environment regarding emissions, with today's engines emitting 50 times less emissions than engines in the 1960's.

Vehicle manufacturers are ever improving the fuel consumption of their vehicles, however fuel consumption can also be greatly improved by using better lubricants (engine oils). For example 5% in fuel consumption can be saved by switching from a multi-grade to a friction modified lubricant. Strub offers you these lubricants that are engineered to not only save you on fuel but also extend service intervals.

WHAT IS AN AUTOMOTIVE OIL?

Car engine oils play a big role, they control friction and reduce wear, protect the engine against rust and cool the pistons while saving fuel and extending engine life. Without these lubricants modern engines and transmissions would not be possible. Engine oils are made up of 75% - 95% base oil. Base oils come directly from the refinery, these oils are further devided into groups, of these groups mostly Group II, Group III and Group IV is used as base oils for engine oil. The rest of the oil is made up of additives which improve the performance of the oil. These additives are for example rust inhibitors, extreme pressure additives, anti-wear additives, antioxidants, detergents, dispersants, antifoam additives and viscosity modifiers.

The viscosity of the oil is probably the most important of all, the way it reacts under temperature and pressure. Viscosity is the internal resistance to flow of a liquid, the higher the viscosity the "thicker" the oil. As your engine heats up due to pressure, the viscosity of the oil reduces in other words the oil thins out. An engine oil should not thin out at high temperatures to the point where metal contacts with metal and shearing takes place. This will result in catastrophic failure. Also important is the ability of the oil to resist oxidation and stay in grade while laying down a protective film on the metal surfaces to protect against wear.

For an engine to perform at its peak the oil has to be formulated to protect the valve train, the bearings and piston assembly. Engines mostly operate in the "hydrodynamic lubrication" region. Meaning that the fluid film is generated internally by the rotation of the engine and that contact of the metal surfaces is not possible. When the engine stops the oil film drains and the thickness of the film that is left on the metal parts is substantially thinner. This is when anti-wear additives come into play, these additives are polar and attracted to the metal so that there is protection when the engine is started again. Anti-wear additives are only affective to about 250°C, at this temperature because of heat the Extreme Pressure EP additives are activated. The EP additives react with the metal surface and forms a new compound that lays a protective film on the metal.

ABOUT AUTOMOTIVE OIL VISCOSITY GRADES

There are two categories of lubricants - mono-grade and multi-grade, depending on whether their viscosity changes significantly with changes in temperature. The SAE has a detailed classification system for these oils. One example is the SAE grade of 10W30 which is classified as a multi-grade oil. The first part (10W) refers to the dynamic viscosity measured at low temperatures, while (30) describes the kinetic viscosity at 100°C. The lower the number, the lower the viscosity. For example a 5W30 has a viscosity five times lower than a 20W50. Viscosity of an engine oil at low temperatures is as important as the viscosity at higher temperatures. At low temperatures you want easy starting and friction protection and at higher temperatures you don't want your engine oil to thin out too much and give too little friction protection.

The viscosity of a multi-grade oil is different at high and low temperatures, for example a multi-grade 10W30 has a similar viscosity to that of a mono-grade SAE 30 at 100°C but the 10W30 will be thinner at low temperatures. This is due to additives in the multi-grade know as viscosity modifiers. A thinner oil at lower temperatures is crucial to easy starting, that's why multi-grade is by far the better choice when a variance in temperatures is expected. Multi-grade oils have a much more stable viscosity over a wide temperature range and today's performance engines need oils with these capabilities.