When it comes to multi-purpose greases, lithium-based products dominate the worldwide market. Two of the main reasons many engineers and users favour lithium greases are their properties and performance. However, since modern multi-purpose greases must be both high-performance and economical, the use of lithium-based products is currently being re-assessed. This is due to the marked increase in lithium prices over the past few months — a trend that will continue according to expert estimates, and is also reflected in the increased cost of lithium-based multi-purpose greases. Engineers and users must now face the question: Is using lithium-based greases still viable in the long-term given the increase in price?
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To allow engineers and users to plan more securely and with less dependence on lithium, lubricant specialist Rhenus Lub is releasing an innovative multi-purpose grease that is completely free from this ingredient. The new EP multi-purpose grease rhenus CMN 2 is calcium-based, but has an equivalent level of performance and quality to lithium-based greases. This means that users and engineers remain unaffected by the rising price of lithium, without having to compromise on the excellent performance of comparable lithium products.
This was of utmost importance for the development department at Rhenus Lub, as explained by Dr Marco Pfeiffer, Product Manager Lubricating Greases at Rhenus Lub: “With rhenus CMN 2, we have redefined the performance of calcium-based greases — cost planning certainty is of no use to customers if the performance of our alternatives to lithium products falls by the wayside. The only way of guaranteeing success is therefore the perfect combination of performance and cost stability.”
Calcium EP multi-purpose grease rhenus CMN 2 can do anything that a lithium-based product can do. It has good sealing properties and can be used at the same temperature as lithium greases. Thanks to its extreme water resistance and excellent adhesion, rhenus CMN 2 even has advantages over lithium-based greases. This means that the calcium grease can be used in an extensive range of applications in many industries, for example construction and agricultural equipment, industrial forklift trucks, lorries, slewing bearings on cranes, mining, shipping, lubrication of pump and press bearings and other general roller bearing applications. “Thanks to the properties of rhenus CMN 2, which are at least equivalent to those of lithium multi-purpose greases, our customers and users are less dependent on lithium and can already start planning for the future,” says Dr Marco Pfeiffer.
I think it is more to do with what is available in Halfords, or wherever shop they get their grease. I can’t think when I saw non-lithium apart from the cartridges we get from the farm supply for the cricket club tractor and gang mower.
Another related puzzle is the white grease that seems to be stock for car window mechanisms.
I can’t really comment on the lubrication advantages, but I do know that Weldtite TF2 ‘handles’ nicely and appears to do what it should.
Chemists here might find something of relevance in the Material DataSheet:
https://ibike.sustrans.org.uk/wip/wp-content/uploads//09/COSSH_Weldtite_TF2_Lithium_grease_white-1.pdf
The white comes from Zinc Oxide, if that’s any help
MichaelG.
Hi, there isn’t a one type fits all bearing grease, just about everything associated with the bearing in use needs to be considered.
https://www.skf.com/uk/products/lubrication-management/lubricants
The above link will give you a lot of information, and this catalogue link below should help with a lot of your queries.
https://cdn.skfmediahub.skf.com/api/public/094fed3d0a/pdf_preview_medium/094fed3d0a_pdf_preview_medium.pdf#cid-
Regards Nick.
Goto Aleman Moil to know more.
P.S. I have no association to the company in the above links.
As an industrial fan engineer I have done a fair bit of research into bearings and lubrication and I know enough to say it is a bewildering and highly specialised discipline, tribologists I believe they are called.
Look on SKF as mentioned above or lubrication people like Shell, Esso and other special lubrication manufacturers and you will see what I mean, general purpose greases, marine, aerospace, energy, construction machinery, all have their own unique requirements, the list of purpose made lubricants is huge.
Bill D.
Back to the OP’s original question… ‘Normal’ grease is, in fact, lithium grease: it’s by far the commonest type. Sodium-soap-based grease is very rare and has, as far as I know, no properties useful to us. Calcium-soap-based greases have better water-resistance than Li grease, which is poor.
As has been said, ‘grease’ now covers an alarming multitude of formulations – quite beyond a mortal’s ken. ‘Channelling’ greases are now popular, formulated to squeeze out of the way of balls and rollers in bearings, to reduce grease churning and heat production. I think they get this property from their fillers (of which there’s a bewildering choice). These behave differently from the softer greases of old, and I’m frustrated by not being able to find equivalents (at least in NZ). The NLGI classification relates to something like viscosity, but there’s far more to a grease’s characteristics than NLGI1, NLGI2, etc, despite what the retailer would have you believe…
Decades ago, Castrol LM grease (a good, multi-purpose Li grease) was a soft, translucent formulation. It tended to separate fairly readily, so there was a thin oil layer on top of the grease in the tin. Whatever happened to it? Now, a ‘multi-purpose’ grease seems to be a thick, sticky, opaque mess, with a higher filler content, presumably with marked ‘chanelling’ properties. It doesn’t separate out in the tin so readily, but, if left in a grease gun with a spring-pressurised resevoir, the oil dribbles out, eventually leaving a very stiff cake in the resevoir, which is the devil to clean (been there…).
My belief is that ‘chanelling’ greases are not good in slow-moving plain or sliding bearings, for which the ‘softer’ greases were OK. Can someone enlighten?
This sliding factor is important, bearings that are too lightly loaded can do this and it is most undesirable, in essence oversize bearings can be a problem just as much as undersize.
The thing to remember is this type of bearing, commonly called anti friction bearings or rolling bearings, work by rolling. This not to be confused with Roller bearings. Overgreasing can also cause problems by excessive churning creating high temperatures.
I reiterate that I am not a bearing expert, just many years experience of using bearings in highly loaded high speed conditions
Bill D.
I can vouch for the potential destructive power of Molybdenum lubricants, many years ago I put molybdenum additive in a car gearbox oil, the gearbox failed soon after because a needle roller bearing between the input and output shafts disintegrated, at the time I was unaware of the potential damage to roller and ball bearings from molybdenum. The gearbox had done less than 30,000 miles from new and the debris from the disintegrated bearing made a good job of wrecking the gears, needless to say I am very cautious of any oil or grease with additives, my go to grease for general work is Lithium based grease. Dave W
I do now agree there is significant doubt over generic application of ‘black moly’
As it happens, I almost ran out of Castrol LM over weekend so had decided to get a replacement. I checked out Project Farm and concluded that I should get Red Line CV-2 red moly… which is good for bearings… and I made the wrong conclusion ‘moly’ is always good. I now realise I don’t know what red moly is and that it is probably different from black moly (MoS2). This is a synthetic, calcium grease so I also now know to remove old grease before applying.
Also, as it happens, I have a selection of HAGEN Automation micronised solid lubricants (tungsten WS2, moly, boron-nitride, PTFE) which I will now not be usingin combination with oil lubes for high speed bearings. So far I have been dusting it on things where I don’t want liquid or grease lubricants that might take up dust, dirt e.g. folding pocket knife. Red hot I tend to use graphite. I might add them to red line CV-2 for non-ball-bearing applications like angle grinder gears.
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