NYE: HIGH SPECIALIZATION IN INDUSTRIAL SYNTHETIC LUBRICANTS

Nye is a FUCHS Group company dedicated to innovative oil products and new technologies for more than 175 years. Nye lubricants is headquartered in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and, as a manufacturer of specialty lubricants, combines deep experience and technical knowledge that it makes available to its customers around the world to solve the most complex engineering challenges.

È from January 2020 that Nye Lubricants is a member of the FUCHS Group, the largest independent manufacturer of lubricants in the world. We had talked about the FUCHS Group some time ago in an article, where we went into more detail about the various food industry certifications, from the perspective of lubricants. FUCHS develops innovative and customized solutions for the most diverse applications: together, FUCHS and Nye, offer a broad product portfolio and one-stop service for all lubrication needs in a wide variety of industries.

Nye’s mission: 100 percent focus on industrial lubricants.

World leaders in various industries, when it comes to lubricants, rely on Nye of the Fuchs Group; this is because Nye focuses 100 percent on lubricants, and related specialty categories, and has done so since 1844. Nye offers a comprehensive range of lubricanti synthetics that meet rigorous national and international quality standards.

Nye Lubricants customers of the Fuchs Group.

Nye lubricants’ major customers include. the largest automotive OEM suppliers; the largest global aerospace and defense contractors; brand-name companies of home appliances and power tools; major manufacturers of vacuum and cleanroom equipment; and leaders in the emerging fields of medical devices and renewable energy.

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION: Advanced Industrial Lubrication Solutions

Nye engages in development oriented to the applications and various industrial drives directly and in collaboration with customers to develop consistently innovative solutions for their projects. With repeated in-house testing capabilities and a global research and development network to support it, Nye validates all designed lubricants before it can guarantee their promised quality.
Only after passing various tests are products brought to market and made available to customers.

Lubrication basics from the official Nye Lubricants website

• How to select a fat or oil

Lubricants serve to protect components from wear and corrosion and therefore must be treated critically in design. Chemical lubricants are many and not all are suitable for every application. Therefore, they must be selected and tested thoroughly before trying them directly “in the field.”

Here are some things to consider when selecting a lubricant for a specific application.

• Grease or lubricating oil?
  

The first question many engineers are confronted with is: grease or oil?
In some applications, oil may be the only viable alternative. Bearings made of sintered metal or powdered are designed to be impregnated with oil. Even small delicate mechanisms, such as those found in watches, micrometers or other precision instruments, may require oil if they lack the driving force to overcome even the lightest grease. With these few exceptions in mind, engineers should never not evaluate grease because it offers many advantages, both in cost and performance, over oil.

I greases for example prevent fretting wear better than oils and are more forgiving, allowing engineers to be a little less demanding and precise about some components that would otherwise have to fit together perfectly.

• Operating temperature of lubricants

An excellent lubricant must be chemically stable, both at high and low temperatures, and have sufficient “film” strength to adequately prevent wear. In both cases it must remain sufficiently fluid at all times. Some lubricants that contain chemicals, such as perfluoropolyethers, are better suited for use in industrial applications where extreme temperatures are expected.

• Compatibility between materials

Some lubricants can “affect” some plastics and elastomers.
Compatibility between various specific plastics and elastomers should always be thoroughly tested first, evaluating the physical properties of the component such as tensile strength, dimensional stability and gravimetric stability after immersion in the lubricant. Higher temperatures and lower base oil viscosities usually aggravate chemical incompatibility.

Some metals that come into contact with a lubricant may exhibit accelerated corrosion or lead to unwanted polymerization or “painting.” These problems can be avoided by identifying early in the design process the metal alloys used in the device and analyzing and testing their compatibility with various types of lubricants and additives.

• Operating environment

Some aspects of the end-use environment of the device need to be considered: is it corrosive? Is dust a problem? Will the lubricant be exposed to water, steam, solvents or solvent fumes? Is microvibration a possibility? Will the component be exposed to vacuum conditions that require virtually no outgassing or particle generation? Just like other parts of the component that are designed to withstand certain operating conditions, the lubricant must also be designed with these constraints in mind.

• Life requirements of components

Some applications require what we like to call lubrication for life, called “Lube for Life.”. In applications where maintenance is impossible or difficult, such as space or enclosed gearbox applications, a grease or oil must be able to lubricate the component for its expected lifetime.

• Loading conditions

For most industrial applications, prevention of wear caused by friction is the main reason for using a lubricant. In general, higher viscosity base oils support heavier loads.

If the load in the contact zone is too high or the speed is too slow, the asperities of the rubbing surfaces may collide causing excessive wear. In this situation, called boundary lubrication, extreme pressure (EP) anti-wear additives may be needed. I ester-based greases are particularly suitable for preventing wear between metals, subjected to heavy loads. Instead, under relatively light loading conditions, the high surface energy of a silicone grease can help re-wet the surface.

Design goal

I lubricants for industrial use are not simply to prevent wear and tear.
Lubricants can also be used to achieve specific design goals that would normally be achieved by mechanical parts, such as:

• Control the precision movement
• Reduce noise, vibration and harshness
• Eliminate humming, squeaking and other sounds
• Reduce the torque
• Reduce temperatures

Lubricant application and maintenance

The way lubricant is applied to the device during manufacturing is critical to its success: the correct amount must be applied in the right location. In some applications, too much lubricant can be more damaging than applying too little lubricant.

Containers should be kept closed and exposure to contaminants minimized. Some precision components, such as those found in HDD bearings, may require cleaning of the lubricant through microscopic ultrafiltration.

Lubricants: the various requirements for multiple transmissions and industrial applications

The type of lubricant to be used will depend on the type of industrial transmission in which it will be used, and the type of application. A bearing supporting a rotating shaft will have a different lubrication system than a set of plastic gears. It is necessary to consider the final application of the component and the likely failure mode determined. Many industrial synthetic lubricants have been developed for specific parts, including:

• Ballscrews and screws
• Bearings
• Connectors
• Gears
• Slides
• Switches
  

The key is to choose a lubricant designed for the device in question. Some applications may also need to address industry constraints such as defense specifications, food quality requirements or biocompatibility issues.

Lubrication is a science, and we are here to be able to help you. If you need help selecting the right lubricant for your application,we are ready to help you and recommend the best one for your type of industry. Contact us without obligation.