AGMA 15FTM22 PDF

Industrial gear oils are a critical component in the efficient operation of modern equipment. More than 800 000 tons of these industrial gear oils are sold each year, which accounts for 5–6% of the total industrial lubricants market.

While industrial gear oils have not traditionally been the leading focus for lubricant development, the recent strong growth of wind turbines and field service performance has shifted the focus significantly in the direction of the industrial gear oils.

The challenging application for gearboxes in wind turbines has created demand for new high performance synthetic gear oils that provide both good equipment protection and longer drain intervals. While recent years have seen lubricant performance improvements, the highly fragmented landscape of OEM requirements and the complex approval processes have limited the application’s attractiveness to those developing new lubricant formulations.

Today, however, the leading synthetic gear oils are based principally on polyalphaolefins (PAO), and while these lubricants are very effective and durable, they come at a significant cost penalty when compared to conventional mineral oils.

This has created an opportunity for a new class of industrial gear lubricants, based on alternative synthetic materials. These new industrial gear oils have been developed to satisfy critical market performance expectations, ensure global supply chain security, and to address economic as well as performance challenges.

This paper describes the technical aspects of this novel synthetic gear oil lubricant approach.