Lubricants specification

Comite des Constructeurs d Automobiles du Marche Commun represents joint industry opinion on factors such as lubricant specifications, emissions, vehicle design and safety standards. With regard to crankcase lubricants, CCMC defines sequences of engine tests, and the tests themselves are defined by CEC (Coordinating European Committee for the Development of Performance Tests for Lubricants and Engine Euels a joint body of the oil and motor industries). 

For many years the quality of lubricant base oils has been categorised by the American Petroleum Institute, API, into Groups and used in lubricant specifications worldwide [10]. The latest base oil categories are described in API 1509 (API 2007) only the first three Groups, the mineral oil-derived, non-synthetic, base oils, are described in this chapter. The full categorization, to include up to Group V, is described and discussed in the next chapter. Groups I-III base oils are defined as follows ... 

Passenger Car Lubricant Specifications and Evaluating Lubricant Performance... 

Lubricant specifications The required performance of a lubricant in a specific application is defined by a specification. For passenger car oils, the specifications are normally set by a regional industry body such as API, ACEA, JASO or by a vehicle manufacturer such as Ford, VW, Mercedes Benz. In some other applications, such as heavy-duty lubricants and transmissions, specifications may also be set by a military organisation or by a Tier 1 supplier to the vehicle manufacturer. Irrespective of the organisation defining the specification, there are common areas against which the passenger car lubricant will be measured. 

For the API CH-4 heavy-duty diesel lubricant specification in 1998, soot-related engine wear was assessed using the Cummins Ml 1 HST (high soot test) and the 6.51 Roller Follower Wear Test (RFWT). As EGR effects were introduced into the API CI-4 category in 2002, the Cummins MU HST engine test was upgraded to the MU EGR engine test. For API CJ-4 in 2007, the Cummins ISM test has replaced the MU EGR, and the Cummins ISB test has been added to measure soot-related wear in a cam follower contact. 

Engine Lubricant Specifications The American Petroleum Instimte, API, approves the standards by which lubricant quality is assessed in North America. From 1985 onwards, there has been a plethora of lubricant specifications mainly associated with upgrades in engine technology to meet emission standards. Prior to 1985, the specifications were usually based on US military specifications MIL-L-2104. 

European engine lubricant specifications were established by CCMC until ACEA was formed in 1991. ACEA issued new lubricant specifications in 1996 and aimed to update them every 2 years. ACEA 2008 is the most recent heavy-duty diesel engine lubricant specification. 

Although automotive gasoline engine oil specifications will continue to influence four-stroke motorcycle engine lubricant specifications, critical differences in motorcycle engine design and lubricant appetite will demand the need for motorcycle-specific lubricanf fesfs to ensure protection and performance in this highly stressed application. 

From the above discussions it is clear that formulating gas turbine lubricants is a complex business and also that they can be formulated to favour particular properties over others. It is the user of the lubricant who must define the requirements which the resulting lubricant must meet. Ultimately, the lubricant must perform adequately in the engine but it is totally impractical for every single experimental formulation to be tested in an engine. Therefore there must be a means of conveying the technical requirements which the lubricant must meet, which is the purpose of the lubricant specification. 

Dedication S. Lee dedicates the turbine lubricants section of this chapter to his former colleague and mentor, John Hughes, who was a major contributor to the development of turbine lubricant specifications in the UK and a key player in the development of SAE specification AS5780. 

The US military and UK MoD set lubricant specifications as users of mechanical equipment systems, rather than the manufacturers and independent of lubricant producers. US military committees, military personnel and representatives of equipment suppliers, developed specification and approval systems for lubricants used by US and worldwide lubricant manufacturers, other than Eastern Bloc countries. 

Sections 17.2, 17.3 and 17.4 look at the API tripartite, the ACEA and ILSAC lubricant specifications, respectively. The complete specification tables are not given for each system because ... 

A characteristic of automotive petrol lubricant specifications is the inclusion of the performance properties of each previous category, thus the SM specification gives full protection for SJ or SL requirements. This differs from the diesel engine specifications which usually, but not necessarily, include the performance properties of earlier specifications. Table 17.9. 

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