TECHNOLOGY

TRIBOLOGICAL LABORATORY

Friction and wear: a duo to be fought with newer strategies. Physical tests allow the verification of an oil's lubricating capacity and to highlight any short-comings. Oils that look similar can sometimes hide very different properties.

Load Resistance

A traditional test that clearly highlights a lubricant's efficiency at counteracting friction: by making four stainless steel balls rotate quickly one against the other. Just like the metal parts of an engine are subjected to rubbing, the balls reproduce and generate a certain level of friction untill they reach an extreme limit where the wear measured on the balls would correspond to the seizing up of an engine. The amount of wear over a specified time is measured quantitatively by lubricating the balls with different types of oil.