Lubricants

PETER GREVEN – Your partner for ester lubricants

Sustainability is becoming more important throughout the lubricant industry. Therefore, the relevance of biolubricants is also increasing as they are biodegradable and mainly consist of renewable feedstock.

As our products have been based on renewable raw materials ever since, the lubricant industry is one of our focus industries.

Our portfolio of LIGALUB^® - Sustainable Ester Lubes was especially developed for the lubricant industry. It includes high quality synthetic esters which can be used as base oils. For example, we offer mono, glycerol, polyol and complex esters.

To meet the growing industry requirements our LIGALUB^® product range offers products with certifications and listings tailored to the lubricant industry. This includes for instance LuSC listed and RSPO certified or NSF certified esters. For further information on a specific certification / listing please see the quality management section.

In addition to the ester product portfolio we offer high quality metallic soaps and fatty acids. They are used as additives in different lubricants.

Our brands for the lubricant industry

LIGALUB^®, LIGASTAR^®und LIGACID^®

Application areas

The lubricant industry offers various application areas which results in highly variable requirements for the esters. This makes a comprehensive, case-related examination of the respective lubricant and its application requirements inevitable to find the perfect ester. The following explanations can therefore only provide a rough indication.

Greases

Greases are solid or semi-solid lubricants. They consist of two components: A thickener system that generates the special consistency of the grease and a liquid lubricant providing the actual lubrication. The thickener system acts like a sponge that releases the liquid parts under load in order to secure the essential lubricating effect.

Our metallic soaps of the LIGASTAR^® product range can act as thickeners for greases. Lithium, calcium and aluminium stearates are the preferred products. Our LIGALUB^® esters can be used as liquid lubricant components with polyol and complex esters being favoured - both in saturated and unsaturated variants.

Hydraulic Oils

Hydraulic oils are liquid lubricants for hydraulic systems and are needed to transmit energy – mainly volume flow or pressure – within those systems. Besides their lubricating effect they provide cooling properties and prevent corrosion, wear and deposits.

The esters of our LIGALUB^® product range are perfectly suitable as base oils for hydraulic oils.

Saturated polyol esters or saturated complex esters are often the chosen products.

Industrial Oils

There is a wide range of different types of gearboxes which, despite many differences and peculiarities, have one major thing in common: Gear oils are needed for the lubrication of spaces between the gearwheels and components.

The gear oils main function is to reduce friction in order to avoid wear of the components. Additionally, it prevents corrosion and offers a cooling effect as the friction-related heat is taken away by the gear oil. Our LIGALUB^® esters are used as base oils for this application. Saturated polyol esters and saturated complex esters are preferably used but unsaturated variants are also used in some cases.

Chains are used for a variety of applications. In general, they are responsible for the power transmission within the respective system. Lubrication of the chains is essential to secure the agility of the chain links and to reduce wear. The LIGALUB^® product portfolio can also be used as base oil for chain oils. As with gear oils, saturated polyol esters and saturated complex esters can be recommended.

Metal Working Fluids

Metalworking fluids are often referred to as cooling lubricants. The essential functions of a metalworking fluids are to cool the tool and material and to reduce the friction between the components and thus prevent wear of the tool.

They can be categorized into two groups:

Water-miscible cooling lubricants are divided in emulsions and dissolutions. The physical characteristics of both categories are largely the same and they usually consist of more than 90 % water. They are used in particular when, for example, good cooling rather than good lubricating effect is needed for grinding, sawing or turning. In addition, water-miscible metalworking fluids ensure good rinsing of the contact surfaces as the metal chips are removed by the fluid.

Cooling lubricant emulsions are widely used in the industry due to their good cooling effect combined with relatively low cost. Water soluble metal working fluids are, in comparison to emulsifiable products, characterised by easier handling.

Our LIGALUB^®polyol esters are particularly suitable as base oils for cooling lubricant emulsions, with unsaturated variants preferably used, while glycerol and polyethylene glycol (partial) esters are particularly suitable for water soluble metal working fluids. Additionally, high viscosity complex esters can be used as additives. For this purpose unsaturated esters are preferred.

Compared to the water-miscible metal working fluids the non-water-miscible ones are characterised by their good lubricating effect, high pressure absorption capacity and good protection against corrosion. They are also almost sterile and resistant to bacteria. This means that no biocides need to be used to combat bacteria and fungi, which increases the longevity cooling lubricant.

Our saturated mono and polyol esters have proven to be excellent base oils for the production of non-water-miscible metalworking fluids.

Engine Oils

Engine oils are essential for all kinds of engines and shall reduce the corrosion-related and mechanical wear. As the temperatures within an engine can be very high it is very important for the engine oil to show low evaporation loss.

LIGALUB® esters are mainly used as additives for engine oils to improve the evaporation loss of the mainly mineral based lubricants.

Our unsaturated complex esters turned out to be particularly effective with regard to the prevailing requirements.

Spezialschmierstoff • Peter Greven Gruppe

Special Applications

Besides the above-mentioned application areas there are many more, including some very specific possible applications for our ester product range.

Our long-term experience as well as our technical know-how enable us to be your competent partner for special applications in order to find the right ester for your requirements.