By L.U.M. GmbH
Besides in industrial applications, lubricants, coolants and release agents are used for many other purposes. This includes cooking (oils and fats in use in frying pans, in baking to prevent food sticking), bioapplications on humans (e.g. lubricants for artificial joints), ultrasound examination, medical examination. Lubricants often contain 90% mineral oils as base oils and less than 10% additives. Sometimes base oils consist of vegetable oils or synthetic liquids such as hydrogenated polyolefins, esters, silicones, fluorocarbons. Non-liquid lubricants include powders (dry graphite, PTFE, molybdenum disulphide, tungsten disulphide, etc.). Dry lubricants such as graphite, molybdenum disulphide and tungsten disulphide also offer lubrication at temperatures higher than liquid and oil-based lubricants are able to operate. Different LUM instruments for particle and dispersion characterization serve the needs in the lubricants, coolants, release agents market. Applications include particle counting and particle and droplet size distribution, rapid separation and instability testing, prediction of the long-term behaviour in short time. Examples for rolling oils prove LUM’s accelerated testing approach. Waiting for 1 month @ 60°C without acceleration is reduced down to a 6 h measurement, several hours of waiting at elevated temperatures are cut short to 17 min at the same temperature, both when applying higher gravity. A large range of measuring parameters, e.g., temperature, acceleration, wavelength, in combination with a large variety of accessories serve the very different needs of all lubricants, coolants and release agents customers.
