Influence of Contamination of Gear Oils in Relation to Time of Operation on Their Lubricity

Abstract

The quality and reliability of consumables, including gear oils, results in the failure-free operation of the transmission components in heavy trucks. It is known that oil viscosity is essential for all lubricated tribopairs for wear and friction reduction in all vehicles with a gearbox. Viscosity may be influenced by the contamination that wear products can impart on the oil. Oil contamination can also affect lubrication efficiency in the boundary friction conditions in gearboxes where slips occur (including bevel and hypoid gearboxes). The present research focused on this issue. An obvious hypothesis was adopted, where it was theorized that exploiting the contaminants that are present in gear oil may affect how the lubricating properties of gear oils deteriorate. Laboratory tests were performed on contaminants that are commonly found in gear oil using the Parker Laser CM20. The study was designed to identify a number of different solid particles that are present in oil. At the second stage, friction tests were conducted for a friction couple “ball-on-disc” in an oil bath at 90 °C on a CSM microtribometer. The quantitative contamination of the gear oils that contained solid particles and the curves representing the friction coefficients of fresh oils with a history of exploitation were compared. The test results were statistically analysed. Exploitation was shown to have a significant impact on the contamination of gear oils. It was revealed that the contamination and the mileage had no effect on the tested oils.

Keywords

• lubricity
• gear oil
• wear
• operational reliability