Gear oil additives are the key elements in increasing the protection and performance of your vehicle gears. Different oil additives have different purposes. If these additives are not present in your oil, you may experience rapid failure of your gears.
Does this article aim to discuss the main goals of gear oil additives in detail? What categories exist for gear oil additives? How would you define some types of gear oil additives? Why do Gear oil additives Matters? Sounds exciting? Let’s begin.
Introduction
Gear oil additives are the secret ingredient of lubricant performance. They make your gear oil last longer and protect against air, water, and other contaminants. Their sole purpose is to prevent wrecking your engine in the process.
There are three main goals of a gear oil additive in your gearbox. It would help to keep these goals in mind when selecting the right gear oil. These goals are as follows:
- Increasing the characteristics of base oil
- Limiting the unnecessary base oil properties
- Adding advanced characteristics to the base oil
What Categories Exist for Gear Oil Additives?
There are three main categories of gear oil additives. Among these categories, subcategories also exist. Some of the main and their sub-categories include:
1. Enhancing
As the name express enhancing, enhance your oil properties. It does this especially for the existing oil properties to make it perform better. Four subcategories exist in enhancing category. These are as follows:
1. Corrosion Inhibitors
Corrosion inhibitors (CI) are chemical additives that prevent the formation of metallic corrosion products.
Corrosion inhibitors can help halt rust growth and eliminate water’s corrosiveness in gear oils. They act as a barrier, preventing the formation of oxide layers on the important metal’s surfaces.
2. Anti-Foam Agents
Anti-foam agents’ purpose in the formula of a gear oil additive is to prevent foam formation. It is common during the application of gear oil. Anti-foam agents typically include dispersant chemicals that absorb oxidants by micro-air bubbles inside the lubricating system.
Without an anti-foam agent, hard and dry residues may accumulate on various components in your engine. This can aggravate corrosion, leading to Malfunctioning or an engine knock.
3. Antioxidants
Antioxidants are chemicals present in the oil to prevent oxidation. Due to this, Anti-Oxidation helps protect the free radicals from damaging the gear’s surface.
They help retain its properties such as viscosity, and density, which is a key factor in preventing potential engine failure.
4. Demulsifying Agent
The demulsifying agent is an emulsion breaker that can reduce water absorption by dissolving the embedded oil crystals.
It reduces the oil’s surface tension and foam in contact with air or water.
2. Suppressing
Suppressing refers to the agents that you can use in gear oil to suppress the properties within a specific limit. Some of the main subcategories of suppressants are as follows:
1. Viscosity Index Improvers
Viscosity Index Improvers are additives that enhance the viscosity index of gear oil. Decreasing the viscosity index improves the flow characteristics of gear oils.
The role of Viscosity Index Improvers in gear oils increases as the gears get hotter. This also happens when there is a high load on the system.
2. Pour Point Depressant
Pour point depressants in gear oil additives are special additives. Its role is to reduce the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in your lubricant. These substances have greater than normal boiling points.
They also have less than normal evaporation points, so they do not evaporate at normal operating temperatures.
It is not necessary for other applications where high temperatures are not present. In gears, constant working and high loads lead to the temperature rise. Pour point depressants are beneficial.
3. Imparting
The imparting agents are not present in the base oil. You add these agents in a base oil to embed additional properties. You can impart the following properties to your gear oil. The sub categories of imparting agents are as follows:
1. Metal Deactivators
Metal Deactivators is useful in the case of gear oil additive with high metallic content. They prevent the production of corrosive deposits on various internal parts.
Metal deactivators attack and neutralize the active corrosion species. Thus, reducing their wear and damage caused by metal deactivators.
2. Tackiness Agents
Tackiness agent plays a great role in your gear oil additives. You can use it to improve the adhesion properties of your oil. It increases retention and protects your oil from dripping.
For total control of heat transfer and excellent hand feel, the Gear Industry Tackiness Agents are essential. These additives you can use to form a barrier that helps keep gear oils from escaping in high-use applications.
3. Extreme Pressure
Extreme pressure additive prevents your engine from extreme pressures. It protects it from extreme wear and tears due to high pressures. You cannot ignore the importance of extreme pressure agents in your gear oil.
How Would You Define Some Types Of Gear Oil Additives?
Based on the categories mentioned above, several types of gear oil additives exist. Some of the widely used or most popular additives are as follows:
- Rust Inhibitors
- Defoaming Agent
- Tackifiers
- Pour Point Retardants
- Wear Prevention
- Oxidation Inhibitors
- Detergent Dispersant
- Viscosity Index Improver
- Extreme Pressure Agent
Explanation of Most Popular Oil Additive Types
Rust and corrosion inhibitors in our gear oil keep your components functioning well without suffering from rust or corrosion.
Defoaming agents you can use to prevent the formation of bubbles in your gear oil.
Tackifiers additive is a special blend of chemical additives. They have a special formulation to prevent gear oil from flinging.
Pour point depressant is a chemical additive that lowers oil’s boiling point. This results in less friction and wears at a lower temperature.
A gear oil with wear additives helps to reduce engine wear and keep your engine running smoothly. It prevents seizing, scoring, and breakdown of your engine from occurring.
When oil and water combine, the result is an oxidation reaction. Oxidation inhibitors prevent this reaction from occurring. Hence it ultimately prevents engine aging.
Detergent Depressant in Gear Oil –Its role is to prevent detergent formation. It also promotes proper dispersion of soot particles and inhibits those which might lead to corrosion.
The viscosity index improver can maintain consistency in transmission oil, so there is no variation with temperature change.
In the end, the extreme pressure agent you can utilize where you experience a very high pressure. Especially in your gearbox.
Additives in Gear Oil
Planetary gears in your final drives face extreme pressure and extreme load levels. This leads to a severe variation in viscosity levels. It represents the standard base oil is unable to meet the thickness level that you need for continuous engine functioning.
The main reason behind this is the continuous shaft rotation at higher speeds. In such a situation, the oil remains there for longer and flinging. It can result in poor heat exchange, improper lubrication, and other consequences.
This will ultimately render your engine inoperable. The only solution is to strengthen the power of gear oil by utilizing different gear oil additives. Some of the most common gear oil additives are defoaming agents, VI Improvers, Oxidation and Rust Inhibitors, tackifiers, etc.
Verdict
Gear oil determines how your engine will perform, especially when it comes to final drive motors. Xugong recommends that every customer practice is changing gear oils and assessing the right oil levels in their gears. You can only do this by following proper maintenance measures.
You will lose your final drive from effective functioning and achieving more productivity. This is true when you ignore the importance of gear oil.
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