Open‐gear lubrication: Meeting industrial requirements using laboratory techniques

This paper gives a general overview of open-gear lubricants. In order to evaluate contending lubricants, laboratory tests are often used as a preliminary screening. When care is taken to perform laboratory tests under conditions which represent the actual operating conditions, simple laboratory tests can be conducted to evaluate products before a product is selected for use in trial runs on actual equipment. In planning laboratory tests, the industrial requirements need to be clearly defined, from the perspective of the supplier, as well as that of the user. Factors such as environmental acceptance, toxicity, and ease of disposal of spent lubricant play as important a role in the formulation of new products as do requirements related to performance, like pumpability, sprayability, adhesiveness, load-carrying ability, and wear protection capability.