Sliding Friction Characteristics of MAC Greases under Vacuum Condition

Abstract

Even though solid lubricants or low-volatile greases are used for lubrication of mechanical equipments in space satellites, the life of grease is longer than that of solid lubricants because of the hydrodynamic effects and replenishment. New grease using multiply alkylated cyclopentane (MAC) as base oil was developed for space applications. In this paper, the lubrication characteristics of the new grease have been investigated by experiments using the basic friction tester under high vacuum condition. The results clearly show that the difference of thickener influences the lubrication characteristics even if the greases consist of the same base oil, and MAC grease used with non-soap urea thickener was superior to the others.

Keywords

• grease
• oil
• thickener
• vacuum
• space
• multiply alkylated cyclopentane
• mac
• pfpe
• ball on disk