A RESEARCH ON GREASE NANOTECHNOLOGY WHEN APPLIED TO WHEEL BEARING GREASE

摘要

A research was initiated to evaluate nanotechnogy and determine the potential benefits of applying it to the lubricating grease application. Several nanogreases were formulated using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and tungsten disulfide (WS_2) fullerenes. In these formulations, the nano-materials were used as a thickening agent or an additive. All nanogreases formulated were evaluated against the test protocol and compared to the performance of a qualified MIL-PRF-10924H grease. According to the test results, the MWNTs based grease tends to improve more than two-fold the high temperature life when compared with the qualified MIL-PRF-10924H grease, but reduce their biodegradability due to the non-biodegradable carbon nanotubes. The WS_2 fullerene based grease provided not only significantly improves the high temperature life, but also the welding resistance of the grease. It was observed that its welding resistance load was increased by about three - fold when compared to that of non- nano based MIL-PRF-10924H grease. In addition, its friction coefficient was significantly reduced by the WS_2 fullerene. According to further observations, the performance capacity, along with the high temperature life of the MWNTs grease were reduced when thickened.