The level of performance expected from lubricants is rising at a rapid pace, and this equates to greater demands on research and development. At the same time, the industry is facing increased restrictions on the list of ingredients it can use.

According to the R&D chief at one influential player, the implications are clear: Research and development in the lubricant industry need to become more productive. Speaking here in October at the annual congress of the Independent Union of the European Lubricants Industry (UEIL), Christine Fuchs of Fuchs Petrolub AG suggested several steps to make product development faster and more efficient. She also contended that research and development need to keep a closer eye on raw material availability.

Its nothing new for lubricants to be improving. Demands on performance of many oils and greases have been steadily rising for decades. Many agree, however, that the pace of improvement demanded has accelerated in recent years. A wide swathe of industries is making equipment – from automobiles to factory machines – with motors that are running faster, generating more power and that are more compact.

Regardless of the machine, such changes require lubricants to have greater oxidative and temperature stability, better antiwear and extreme pressure protection. Equipment is also becoming more precise. Operators want smoother movement and better control. This requires lubricants to be more precise – for example, to maintain viscosity within a narrower range across a wider temperature gradient. Finally, additional tasks are being loaded onto lubricants – the most obvious being demands that they help address environmental concerns.

Some demands oppose each other, meaning that the window for solutions that meet such conflicting requirements can be painfully small. For example, the search for better fuel economy would push lubricants for all kinds of mobile equipment – from cars to planes to bull-dozers – toward lower viscosity in order to reduce friction. But thinner lubes tend not to protect components as well, and manufacturers of many machines are also asking for better protection.

Adding it all up, its clear that industry is expecting much more from lubricants than it has in the past.

Modern lubricants are sophisticated design elements, said Fuchs, head of global research and development for Fuchs Petrolub. She is not related to the family that founded and controls the Mannheim, Germany, company, which is the worlds largest independent lube supplier. The lubricant is increasingly becoming a complex structural element that is designed for its application.

Changing Chemistries

In a significant number of products, formulators are being forced to adopt new chemistries, Fuchs said. In some cases it may happen because performance demands outgrow

the capabilities of old chemistries. In others, effective ingredients may become incompatible with regulatory mandates. Zinc dialkyl dithiophospates (ZDDP) had for decades served as an economical and effective antiwear agent and antioxidant in automotive engine oils, but formulators had to phase it out of newer oils when it was declared incompatible with technologies used to reduce emission of pollutants.

New chemistries sometimes involve chemical additives used to provide more antiwear protection or better detergency. Sometimes they involve new base stocks, be they synthetics such as polyalphaolefin used to improve viscosity index or derivatives of plant oils used to make the final product less toxic to the environment. Whatever the case, implementing new chemistries generally requires much more work than tweaking existing formulations.

Making changes of that magnitude would be difficult enough by itself, Fuchs said. But the task is further complicated by the increasing number of restrictions that formulators are encountering. Many of these stem from regulations such as the European Unions Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation and the United Nations Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals.

These and other regulations – some regional or national – prohibit formulators from using chemicals unless they have been approved for the application in question. While it is possible to get approval for new substances, the requirements and costs of registration create disincentives against introduction of new substances – and this at a moment when the industry would like to use them. Beyond that, regulations may specifically prohibit use of some substances in lubricants. Regulations also raise administrative costs, sapping resources from research and development, as well as other functions, Fuchs said.

Some degree of restriction results not from regulation but from supply dynamics of ingredients that lubricant companies use. The industry now uses a wider variety of base stocks than it did in the past. This not only increases the number of materials that companies must procure; newer base stocks tend to have fewer sources than did API Group I base oil, the industry workhorse for so many decades. That makes it more difficult for companies to respond to supply disruptions when they occur.

Ramping Up R&D

If the industrys research and development departments are going to meet the increased demands thrust upon them despite the more difficult environment, they will need to become more productive, Fuchs said. She suggested a number of steps that would help do this. First, the process of developing formulas should have a more scientific basis and should begin with a more thorough understanding of how and why lubricants and their components behave as they do. Lacking this understanding, the industry has often made formulary decisions based on trial-and-error testing of how certain substances affect performance parameters.

The rheology of the lubricant needs to be better identified and quantified. It is also necessary that the industry focuses more and more on understanding the tribological systems involved in various lubricant applications, Fuchs said. This makes it necessary to develop methods of testing lubricants that have a scientific basis, not only a phenomenological one.

To gain such understanding, formulators need to work more closely with universities and scientific institutes, she said. She also called for cooperating more closely with original equipment manufacturers in order to understand the tribological system in different machines. Such cooperation should also lead to lubricants becoming a more integral component of the machines.

Fuchs said the industry needs to develop computerized models that can be more predictive of lubricant performance. If formulators had such models, research and development could become more systematic, and companies could increase both the pace and speed of advancements.

Computer-based simulation of lubricant behavior, especially the rheological behavior, must be developed, she said. She added, however, that the industry is not close to having such models.

We have a long way to go before we achieve this target, she said. The systems are very complex, and many parameters must be considered.

Eye on Raw Materials

More and more, Fuchs said, lubricant companies are being forced to factor raw material supply issues into their research and development activities. In part, this refers back to the fact that regulations are limiting the substances that formulators have in their tool kit. But the industry also has access to a growing number of materials, some of which are synthetic molecules designed to impart specific properties.

One measure of the pace of change, Fuchs said, is the shift away from petrochemicals. Today, approximately 80 percent of the raw materials in lubricants come from petroleum. In the next decade, she said, that number could decrease to 50 percent.

Lubricant companies selling globally face additional challenges, she said. These companies often want their products to be uniform wherever they are sold, but those with manufacturing sites in different regions may have difficulty ensuring consistency of ingredients.

Raw materials available in different parts of the world are not always of the same quality, she said. Base stock supply profiles vary from region to region. Europe has a surplus of Group I supply and a steadily increasing deficit of Group III. North America and East Asia produce most of the globes Group II, although North America, like Europe, must import Group III. East Asia produces much more Group II and III than it needs, and the Middle East is developing a similar profile.

Finally, Fuchs suggested that companies must look ahead to foresee potential disruptions in raw material supplies – a chemical additive that may be prohibited from use in lubricants, or a specialty base stock whose availability is tenuous because of a dearth of sources.

When some substances are not going to be available any longer, we need to be ready with alternative formulations that are already approved, she said.