Insights · since 2010
Notes from the bench, not the brochure.
Dated analysis for grease plants, blenders and reliability engineers — thickeners, lithium alternatives, EPR, patents as prior art, and what a test method actually measures. Written by an independent formulation practice in New Delhi.
Lithium vs Lithium Complex vs CaSX vs Polyurea: Which Grease Where
Pick the thickener for the environment, not the brand name. Lithium complex for general industrial duty; calcium sulfonate for wet, salty, shock-loaded…
Dropping Point Is Not Operating Temperature — How High-Temp Grease Claims Fail
ASTM D2265 dropping point is the temperature at which grease becomes fluid under a lab load — it is not the continuous…
How Grease Is Manufactured: Saponification, Milling and Why Batches Fail
Grease is not blended. The soap is cooked — fatty acid plus alkali in a cut of base oil — then milled,…
Grease Compatibility: What Happens When You Mix Lithium and Polyurea
Incompatible thickeners soften, harden or bleed when mixed. Lithium and lithium complex are usually family-compatible; polyurea, bentonite and some CaSX grades are…
NLGI 00 vs NLGI 2: When Soft Grease Is the Right Choice
NLGI grade is consistency, not quality. NLGI 2 stays in a wheel bearing; NLGI 00/000 travels down long lines in winter. Using…
Hybrid Polyurea–Calcium Sulfonate Grease for CV Joints
A 2025 US application thickens CV-joint grease with polyurea plus high-TBN calcium sulfonate, keeps sulfonate below 22 wt%, and disperses calcite CaCO3…
Why Calcium Sulfonate Fails FE9 — and Why Formulators Hybridise It with Polyurea
ExxonMobil’s own WO filing says commercial CaSX greases do not show accepted high-temperature life in FAG FE9 (DIN 51821), even when drop…
Calcium Carbonate Greases: Overbased Structure Without Calling It CaSX
A 2025 VGP filing describes greases whose structural component is calcium carbonate, optionally with calcium 12-hydroxystearate. That is the same colloidal idea…
Why Polyurea Grease Age-Hardens — and How Prepolymer Process Changes It
ExxonMobil’s WO 2020/131439 uses isocyanate-terminated prepolymers specifically to cut age-hardening. Residual isocyanate and incomplete amine reaction are why a polyurea grease that…
Calcium–Magnesium Sulfonate Complex: Rheopectic Fluid That Mills into NLGI 2
Waynick’s NLGI papers (backed by eight US patents) describe Ca/Mg sulfonate complex greases at two rheology poles: an unmilled Newtonian fluid that…
Calcium Sulfonate Converter Chemistry: Why the Promoter Decides the Grease
Afton’s 2025 NLGI work cooked six converter recipes from the same 300 TBN overbased sulfonate. Measured properties looked similar; yield (wt% detergent…
Microwave Grease Cooking: First Batches in a Modified Traditional Kettle
NLGI’s 2026 calendar includes a report on first mineral-oil grease batches cooked with microwaves in a modified traditional kettle. Cycle time and…
Emulsion Greases: A New Way to Build Thickener, Not a Cutting Fluid
Lubrizol’s 2026 NLGI paper on emulsion greases is about using an emulsion step to build thickener structure, not about selling a soluble…
Low-Torque Bearing Grease: How to Cut Friction Without Starving the Raceway
Kyodo Yushi’s 2026 ‘new low-torque bearing grease’ sits on a known trade-off: less thickener and lighter base oil cut start-up torque and…
Ionic Liquids in Oscillating Bearings: Delaying Starvation, Not Magic Friction
A 2025 Tribology International study is the first component-level test of ionic liquids as grease additives under oscillating bearings. ILs delayed starvation…
False Brinelling: Softer Grease and Thinner Oil Often Protect Better
FVA 540 / Lubricants 2023 work, plus 2025 fretting papers, show false brinelling falls when base-oil viscosity and NLGI drop — as…
Grease Solids After PTFE: Graphite, MoS2, WS2, hBN and CaCO3
The 2024/2026 ionic-liquid grease patent still lists PTFE among optional solids — and also MoS2, graphite, graphene, hBN, WS2, CaCO3 and silica.…
Oil Bleed Is a Design Variable: Too Little Starves, Too Much Makes a Puddle
Oscillating-bearing work wants high oil release from a soft grease; high-speed e-motor work wants low bleed (the NEI Jaipur ranking favoured PU-PAO…
CV-Joint Grease Internals: Calcite, Borate and Organic Molybdenum
US 2025/0059458 puts colloidally dispersed calcite, calcium borate and an organic molybdenum compound inside a polyurea/CaSX CVJ grease. That is a move…
Organoclay Grease: The Non-Melt High-Temp Option and Its Shear Problem
Bentonite/organoclay greases do not have a dropping point in the soap sense. That is why they get sold as ‘non-melt’. Shear and…