Calcium Sulfonate greases can significantly increase your equipment life and have many advantages over conventional lithium, aluminum complex, and other greases. Some of the advantages are as follows:
- Long lubricant life – many times that of existing fluids – 5 to 10 years of service is not uncommon – reduced maintenance costs
- Long equipment life – many times that of existing fluids (reduced MRO costs) – PAG fluids have been proven with as many as 80,000 hours on Bosch Rexroth pumps in harsh environments
- Low coefficients of friction and high traction coefficients – PAG’s are a polar molecule and are therefore attracted to metal
- Excellent lubricity and wear characteristics (ASTM Hydraulic pump tests, Four Ball Wear, FZG test, etc.)
- No temperature sensitivity – they do not coke or varnish at hot temperatures – also have very high viscosity indexes
- Water Ingression – unlike oils they can withstand water ingression (up to 4%) without a loss in performance
- Hydrolytic Stability – No acid formation when water is introduced – all oils become acidic with the introduction of water
- Naturally high viscosity index – excellent performance in hot and cold conditions
- Fire resistance (FR)
- Energy efficiency and heat transfer– due to their excellent lubrication qualities and volumetric heat capacity
Fully synthetic PolyAlkylene Glycol (PAG) water soluble hydraulic and gear fluids (Neptune AW, Neptune Gear, and UCON Trident) have the best environmental footprint of any lubricant due to the following reasons:
- Declared by Environment Canada as non-toxic and non-hazardous chemical (not an oil)
- They are slightly heavier than water so they sink, solubilize, and turn into a simple sugar (no bio-accumulability)
- There is essentially no spill cleanup, spill contingency plans, etc., required
- Their water ingression limits are as much as 35 times higher than mineral, vegetable, esters, or other EAL’s (Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants)
