Finding the right lubricant for an application is essential for keeping equipment functioning well, extending its lifespan and preventing component failure. Aluminium complex grease is a multifunctional, multipurpose product that can achieve this for many applications, including in manufacturing and assembly plants, steel mills, boat trailers, paper mills, vehicle wheel bearings, and in the construction, rubber, agricultural and textile industries.
Modern aluminium complex greases have good water resistance and thermal and mechanical stability. Colin Ford, Managing Director at Lubrication Engineers (LE) South Africa, explains these types of greases are a particularly good solution in automobile and industrial equipment.
He says, “In many industrial and automotive applications bearings experience fluctuating temperatures when they are heated and cooled repeatedly, and these temperatures can approach or exceed the dropping point of the grease. When the grease in these bearings returns to an ambient temperature, like in cooling fan bearings, if the grease doesn’t maintain most of its initial consistency, the bearing will be at risk of failure.”
Ford adds that with their dropping point of between 232°C and 246°C, aluminium complex greases mitigate this risk with their “excellent” heat reversion characteristics.
Water resistance and stability
One of the most important functions that a grease needs to perform is to keep water out of key equipment parts, as water can cause severe damage inside a mechanism. Resistance to water washout is essential in applications where lubricating grease has to be prevented from entering plant discharge water. As part of its remarkable stability, a reliable aluminium complex grease will also have good water resistance. It will be able to eliminate water in washing out of a bearing and being washed off a flat surface.
Ford adds that this feature of these greases also cuts down on lubricant consumption. Aluminium complex greases have a low soap content and higher oil content, which makes it easy to pump them at low temperatures. “They readily accept extreme pressure additives, rust and oxidation inhibitors and speciality additives. With aluminium complex greases, it’s also possible to make sophisticated lubricant formulations for moderately lower and higher temperature conditions because the mechanical or shear stability of aluminium complex greases is very good,” he says.
LE’s aluminium complex greases include the company’s proprietary and exclusive wear-reducing additives. The aluminium complex greases that LE supplies include Monolec Industrial Lubricants (4700-4702) and Almaplex Industrial Lubricants (1274-1275). LE also offers modified formulations of aluminium complex greases, without EP additives and with the right food grade oil to produce food-grade greases. These include LE’s Quinplex Food Machinery Lubricants (4023-4025), which meet the USDA and FDA H1 requirements.
