European Lubricating Grease Institute (ELGI)

Citation

(2002), "European Lubricating Grease Institute (ELGI)", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 54 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2002.01854aac.001

European Lubricating Grease Institute (ELGI)

Keyword: ELGI

In 2001 Bern in Switzerland hosted the 13th annual general meeting of the ELGI where the quality of the technical presentation made was in keeping with the high standard established at previous AGM's.

Although many interesting papers were presented we describe below some of the topics of special interest discussed.

Researchers at DERA (UK) reported on work done evaluating the performance of greases in the presence of water. The basic concern is that current grease specifications tend to be limited to measuring water washout of the grease or its corrosion preventative characteristics. Unfortunately there seem to be very few tests that address the performance of the greases in a bearing when water contamination is inevitable. One of the applications causing concern was aircraft wheel bearings.

The results of the study showed different grease types exhibit markedly different bearing performance when water was present. This has led to some changes in grease specification used by the UK MOD (Ministry of Defence) and in SAE grease specification. Clearly much more useful work can be done in this area but the basic principle of actually assessing the greases ability to do its job should not be missed. Perhaps too many lubricant specifications try to measure changes in the lubricant during service rather than looking at the results of those changes on the hardware.

Dow Corning described the changes that have occurred in the sealed for life automotive ball joint. In early days when the grease nipple was first removed the joint was typically a steel on steel configuration. Now however apart from lighter metals many joints include plastic components. The lithium based grease traditionally used is not necessarily compatible with these new materials. The researchers described two new test methods they had developed to measure friction and wear in the joint. New greases had been developed to show improvements in these areas and also provide the desired corrosion resistance and compatibility. Interestingly the new greases are based on mineral oils. This very interesting paper may have benefited from more data on the performance on the new greases in the field or indeed their evaluation on the ball joint manufacturer's endurance rigs.

ELGI reported on the establishment of a system to replace the discontinued USDA H1 and H2 Food Grade Lubricant registration system. ELGI must be congratulated on its success as it seems that by 2003 ISO will have accepted the proposed standardisation of food grade lubricants. Its seems likely that the SGS group worldwide will then be able to issue product accreditations against the new standard. It may well be that ELGI is establishing a worldwide accreditation system that may actually be more useful in the long term that its predecessor.

Professor Bartz from the Technische Akademie at Esslingen in Germany provided a very useful reminder of the different types of synthetic oils that can be used in greases. The advantages and disadvantages were discussed and this paper will be a useful reference document for future formulators.

SKF and Fluitec described a new method, which they have developed to predict the remaining life of grease in service. Essentially the method is a means of assessing the remaining amount of anti oxidant in grease by testing its electrical properties. This seems a very interesting piece of work but does of course leave unanswered the question of the use of anti oxidants in greases. Are they actually found in all greases and does their total depletion really mean that the grease is at the end of its useful life? To be fair the researchers are taking grease life to be that established by the SKF ROF test. It seems possible that the researchers new test could be of greatest use in bearing and grease development work. In reality very little used grease analysis takes place in industrial applications and that which does take place concerns machinery where oxidation is unlikely to be a major factor.

In conclusion this was an excellent forum that showed once again the healthy state of the ELGI.