Citation
Taylor, J. (2009), "Editorial", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 61 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2009.01861daa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Volume 61, Issue 4
Earlier this year I was able to attend The ICIS World Base Oils & Lubricants Conference. This was an excellent opportunity to get updated on many areas of interest but especially the future quality of base oils.
Although many researchers are working in theoretical areas those that are more involved with problem solving do need to be careful that their solutions can be moved to the industrial scale.
It is clear that over the next few years there will be some significant changes in the types and qualities of base oils available around the world. In the past problem solutions achieved by using standard base oils have been adopted in the “real world”.
However, in the real world there is a change in the types of base oils being used to produce lubricants. The real driver has been the move to lighter viscosity engine oils which has made the use of API Group 2 and API Group 3 mandatory. This change from the traditional API Group 1 oil is taking place throughout the world although the rate of change varies in different parts of the world.
It would seem important that research workers should understand the new quality base oils and base future work on these products which in themselves can alleviate some technical problems.
In this issue we are pleased to include work from Bulgaria, China, Denmark, India, Taiwan and Turkey. We hope you find these papers interesting and look forward to hearing from you if you have any comments about ILT.
John Taylor