Originally Posted By: jrustles
Good visual contrast of the FM plot vs the plot in the OP, supporting the premise of this thread. As I understand it, it's the 'invisible' organic FMs that are really the 'unseen crutch'- the enabler, if you will, that allow acceptable COF during viscosity breakdown. What about wear?
What cool about the organic FMs is their efficacy at low temperatures, operating below the temp threshold of the classic metallic additives, which is great for warm-up COF.
I still have a few q's about the organic FMs, perhaps for another thread. It's just great that we can have this level of discussion on this forum!
Friction and wear are obviously linked but even the term wear is a little to generic when it comes to talking about the individual components of oil additives.
Again from the STLE website
Quote:
Early investigators could not do much to investigate wear because it is usually a very gradual process, and they did not have accurate means to quantify it. Although friction and wear influence each other, the relationship is complex and involves many other factors including the chemical environment and temperature, each of which influences the others. A simple correlation between friction and wear data is therefore hardly ever found. Modern research has shown that there are 12 main types of wear.
These are:
- Mild Adhesion
- Severe Adhesion
- Abrasion
- Erosion
- Polishing
- Contact Fatigue
- Corrosion
- Fretting Corrosion
- Brinelling
- Electro-Corrosion
- Electrical Discharge
- Cavitation Damage
Wear can be prevented by:
Recognizing the type of wear.
Making changes in the lubricant, design or operation.
Organic FM's work exceptionally well at preventing friction and wear in most boundary conditions. This is one of the great secrets of oil formulation - finding a combination of FM's that synergize with AW's and if necessary EP's. The other part is how these compounds react to the detergents and viscosity modifiers.
Honestly, most of the big additive suppliers create preapproved packages which takes some of the hard work out for making an oil which meets current specs but because of the pressure for innovative solutions in fuel economy more and more tweaks to the formulas are becoming commonplace to the industry.