How do I choose what type of grease thickener to use?

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What factors do I use to determine what type of thickener to go for? It comes down to the application, the environment, and the utilisation. This will then dictate whether you need a water resistant grease like an Aluminium Complex, low noise like Polyurea, High Temperature (no melt) like Bentonite Clay, inherently EP like Calcium Sulphonate, chemically inert like PTFE or just plain old general purpose Lithium Complex.
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Hi I’m Rafe Britton, the Lubrication Expert. I’m known within the industry for my KZbin channel and podcast, and I work with mid-size industrials improve their equipment uptime while reducing the cost of their lubrication program. I’m a mechanical engineer with 13 years of experience on both sides of the industry; both as an operator, and lubricant supplier. I hold a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and a Bachelor of Physics from UNSW.
Lubrication Expert is purposefully brand independent and sells no lubricant, filter, sensor or hardware. I’ve helped dozens of industrial clients upskill their workforce, reduce waste, improve reliability and take great strides toward their corporate sustainability goals. I serve on the Australian Lubricant Association technical committee to push the lubrication industry forward.
Industry doesn’t understand lubrication, and few people are left to teach them. This results in incorrect use of lubricants, contamination & machine failure, leaving reliability engineers frustrated with the state of their lubrication program. The ultimate consequence is more machine interventions, more waste, and more equipment downtime
What I offer is knowledge, and only knowledge. My clients gain access to my learnings both as an operator and industry insider - this includes the technical aspects of lubricant chemistry, degradation and contamination control, but also the commercial considerations so that you can better leverage your supplier relationships.
The result? A world-class lubrication program that optimizes for reliability, reduces waste and improves sustainability outcomes.
0:00 Introduction
0:12 Mechanism
2:20 Application
5:30 Environment
9:19 Manufacturing

[@LubricationExplained]

Looking for structured lubrication courses? lubrication.expert/product/le-pro/

[@warrenarthur5629]

100% A-grade awesomeness, thank you ! I was just thinking the other day of doing some experiments and making my own grease and/or heavy oils with different thickeners, just to see how they perform.

[@LubricationExplained]

Thanks mate! Happy experimenting!

[@Woodstock258]

Always top shelf material with your conversational presentation style. Thank you Great video

[@LubricationExplained]

I appreciate that!

[@fr3ddyfr3sh]

I’m concerned that i might be overthinking the the lubricant selection for my bonnet lock 😂 Sir you are my hero, learned so much from your videos

[@LubricationExplained]

Glad to help!

[@user-xu3zb7nq2h]

Thank you very much for the time you take to make the videos

[@monfoxtrot3123]

Very informative video! As the others! I have a simple question. What kind of grease would you suggest for thread rust prevention for the auto industry? Copper, Alu, multi purpose grease? In my experience Copper (or any advertised anti-seize) get's a paste like consistency after some time and doesn't really work, white multi purpose (bearing) lithium grease holds up pretty well even after a year.

[@jmc6940]

I have access to hi speed bearing grease. I want to thicken it further for vertical seal installations on heavy equipment. What would you use? I found a thick trans lube assembly but didn't like the 23$ price.

[@robortkristensen3818]

Any tips on an additive to reduce noice from straight cut gears in a reduction gearbox

[@user-gz4er3jb8k]

Thank you . I would ask you about the perfect additives to use to make grease with silicon thickner . Can you give me certain a d simple materials such antioxidant and anti rust

[@Aayush1gupta]

Which thickener will perform well under high vibration condition?

[@LubricationExplained]

Good question - it depends a bit on the magnitude of the vibration. Calcium Sulphonate is the grease that is effectively its own EP additive, so it gives a greater level of protection that’s the others in heavily loaded environments.

[@pollepost]

Needle bearings in swing arm on a dirt bike. Exposed to dirt and sometimes high pressure washing. Which type of grease would be the best, pumped by a grease gun.

[@sahedahsanabir8520]

which type of grease is better for motorcyle cone ball racer lubrication for most long life performance?

[@balukarthick8673]

What an insight 🎉

[@vitorcesar5392]

Amazing.

[@LubricationExplained]

Thanks!

[@fr3ddyfr3sh]

thx

[@LubricationExplained]

Oh wow, thanks so much!

[@bills4135]

What is the best type of grease (preferably in a spray can) for lubricating the car's handbrake cable which runs just above the catalyst converter (I think it's hot)? (There is a heat shield between them, but I don't know what temperature the cable is exposed to). Thank you!

[@derekrussell9925]

I'm sure it would be much better to get an answer back from the channel, as I don't know anywhere near as much as this gentleman. I think you can use Lucas Red N Tacky spray. It is a lithium complex grease, with good heat resistance. They sell the product as a great product to use in automotive and agricultural applications. I think it would work well for your cable. It also has rust inhibitors and resistance to water washout. Thanks! God bless

[@SgtMustang]

It's just my intuition, but I doubt grease would matter much at all in this situation - it's a part that only moves a couple times per trip and not by all that much. I'm not aware of handbrake failure as being a thing of concern for any auto owner. I suspect greasing it may be even worse than not greasing it at all, as it's probably going to just accumulate tons of road debris, and all the stuck-on-grime will quickly render the cable less mobile and more quick to wear than not. If anything , I'd use some sort of spray dry lubricant like a PTFE spray, which wont attract grime.

[@Phil-D83]

Interesting

[@LubricationExplained]

Glad you found it!

[@dansacopla4850]

What grease should be used for plastic gears?

[@sunrevolver]

I would like to know as well. I'm thinking silicone grease.

[@jaredfontaine2002]

I was looking for KY jelly or Astroglide 😂😂😂

[@baibhavsharan6519]

Which thickner is best for high load and high temp

[@LubricationExplained]

Probably Calcium Sulphonate.

[@baibhavsharan6519]

@@LubricationExplained wrong

[@seisohai]

Bentone clay is the right answer

[@richardprice5978]

um a food factory iv worked in in the maintenance use's white lithium grease and yes that's next to food processing just not in the food

[@LubricationExplained]

Yikes, they might want to look at that. There's actually a few companies out there that advertise white lithium greases as being safe for use in food processing, but I'd put that under "false or misleading" as they're definitely not H1 approved.

[@richardprice5978]

@@LubricationExplained i don't get to order anything lubricant wise ( can say something to my supervisor and the parts department but that still can fall on deaf ears ) as its a fortune-500 company and international as well doing pig, beef,chicken processing others plant's ( some with over 200 people on shift working at the same time ) i know about use it too in the USA 🇺🇸 at least it's not high leaded oil ( so was the big 3 🇺🇸 car manufacturers pre-1980's ish on top of leaded gasoline ) or grease yes that was the original fill for rose 🌹manufacturing candy equipment iv worked on ( 1910*~ to 2016 manufactured/instilled data-plate's ) i believe after about 1990 there oil formation changed as did the design of the equipment

[@sunrevolver]

if there's no identifiable way for the grease to come in contact with the food directly or indirectly, I don't see any issue with it. Like for the H3 category. However, caution still needs to be taken because even if it is H3, there are some circumstances that it may somehow get its way to come in contact to food. Most common occurence is accidentally using the H3 lubricant in parts where H2 or H1is supposed to be used.

[@mikeadler434]

👍👍

[@donz2605]

How does grease lubrication work? 1. High speed example. 10000 RPM, angle grinder gearbox. Grease flies off the gears due to centrifugal forces. How does grease return to the gears? Most popular NLGI 2 grease will not flow back. 2. Any speed example. Gear's teeth push out grease with every revolution. Eventually film thickness will be reduced to 0?

[@sunrevolver]

1. For high RPM application, you may want to look into thixotropic or non-newtonian type of grease 2. if it can be pushed out causing the grease to leave the system, then yes it will eventually reduce the film thickness to 0. That's why there is something called "regreasing time"

[@MarcusMussawar]

2:44 prime example of how not to lift something

[@ranvirsinghnetam8584]

Which type of Grease is best for wheel bearing applications 1 Lithium red EP grease nlgi 3 2.methyl lithium red gel grease nlgi 2.5 These are some options which I have in my area

[@Robert-un3cf]

How about wheel bearing grease? 🤔