Afton Chemical presents Calcium Sulphonate Grease Soaps - stepping away from Lithium dependency

INSIGHT:

GREASES

Calcium Sulphonate Grease Soaps –

stepping away from Lithium dependency Chris Pether, Customer Technical Support Chemist, Industrial Lubricants, Afton Chemical Ltd

Thanks to an almost perfect balance of cost and performance, Lithium and Lithium Complex grease soaps have long been the predominant choices of grease thickener. It can be argued that other grease soaps may be more cost effective, and many grease soaps may have better performance attributes for specialised applications, but Lithium has always had that near perfect balance that makes it the obvious choice for multipurpose greases, found in many industries such as automotive, mining, marine, steel and power.

In recent years this cost performance dynamic has been disrupted by the rising cost of Lithium. This raw material has been rising in cost steadily these past few years, reaching the point where another grease thickener, Calcium Sulphonate, has moved into focus with its advanced performance attributes and (now) competitive price. The cost of Lithium has been driven up by the increasing demand for batteries, firstly in our increasing dependence in mobile electronics, and secondly - with greater impact - the electrification of vehicles internationally.

Calcium Sulphonate has traditionally been used in the lubricant industry as a detergent for engine oils, as well as a few limited uses in industrial and automotive applications. Leveraging a new experimental grease kettle to develop simple and complex Calcium Sulphonate greases, chemists have been screening performance areas such as the quality of the grease soap, the dropping point or thickening consistency.

Following some in depth analysis, a unique set of components coupled with a new process formula produced a successful grease every time. This system and formulation coupling is now patent pending.

The next challenge coming out of the R&D phase was to ensure that scaled up production would reliably replicate the unique solution in a full-size grease production facility - in collaboration with a commercial grease producer in India. After further refinement of the process, scaling up revealed two further key benefits: • The amount of Calcium Sulphonate needed in the formulation was significantly reduced • The time taken to process the grease was significantly reduced

This increase in Lithium pricing has given grease suppliers the opportunity to evaluate alternative grease soaps on merit of performance and equipment longevity, as the cost difference to move to alternative thickeners is now much decreased. At the recent NLGI India Chapter conference, several papers were delivered that discussed the use of alternative grease thickeners to improve the performance and reliability of industrial equipment applications, which goes to reinforce this change in approach to lubrication.

As with all new developments, the product also needs to be at the right price for customers. Early estimates indicate a typical grease blender manufacturing about 10 metric tonnes a day could save in the region of $50,000 per year thanks to these technology and process benefits. The opportunity for saving is even greater when considered in the context of switching from traditional Lithium-based technology to Calcium - with savings potentially exceeding $300,000.

Recently, Calcium Sulphonate technology and production processes have been developed to support customers with these macro-economic changes.

These are clearly tangible benefits to producers of such a grease, but Calcium Sulphonate grease is a small market isn’t it?

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common Lithium Complex grease and Poly Urea grease – considered a high-performance grease.

As illustrated in the spider diagram, Calcium Sulphonate out performs both Lithium complex and Poly Urea grease on many of the key parameters.

The answer is yes, but this is mostly because Lithium and Lithium Complex greases have always offered a better cost point for the performance offered. With the increase in Lithium costs, many manufacturers of grease have been refocusing on alternative grease soaps such as Calcium Sulphonate, and unlocking the performance benefits these bring such as: • High dropping point and structural stability, ensuring the grease does not weaken under heat and shear conditions, maintaining the desired lubrication qualities • Very high weld load, protecting bearings from impact load conditions • Improved water washout resistance, maintaining the grease structure and composition under wet conditions, as found in steel production plants.

Feedback from customers taking this has been very positive, citing both the manufacturing quality of the grease, and performance against their key requirements. This unique grease soap solution is being used in many applications from steel mill bearings to open gear systems in sugar production.

The enthusiasm and positive feedback from end users offers evidence that the Calcium Sulphonate grease is a robust and beneficial alternative to Lithium grease soaps in real-life applications, and a viable alternative raw material supply for the existing Calcium Sulphonate market.

These attributes make Calcium Sulphonate grease soaps a much better solution for many applications, for instance metal production, open gears (sugar mills, cement production) and wire ropes. End users often look for solutions that extend equipment life, and the focus is on selecting the correct grease that will provide this equipment protection over the lowest cost grease that meets the basic specification.

To further improve confidence, we subjected the Calcium Sulphonate grease soap to a number of laboratory tests, comparing them to the more

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LINK www.aftonchemical.com