• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제27권5호
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• pp.275-280
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• 2011

Automotive wheel bearing grease helps to reduce stresses and prevent wear of wheel bearings. But it is easily contaminated by water and other contaminants. In this study, we investigated the property change of automotive wheel bearing grease under water contamination. The result showed that some properties such as dropping point, work penetration and oxidation stability were not influenced by water content. However, most of properties such as work stability, water washout characteristics, leakage tendency, oil separation, evaporation loss and rust protection became worse after water was added. This is thought that added water makes the interaction weak between thickener and base oil of grease.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.33-37
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• 2012

Automotive wheel bearing grease helps to reduce stresses and prevent wear of wheel bearings. But it is easily contaminated by water and other contaminants. Previously, our research group reported the change of grease physical properties such as dropping point, work penetration and oxidation work stability, water washout characteristics, leakage tendency, oil separation, evaporation loss and rust protection by water contamination. In this paper, we analyzed the physical characteristics of grease such as lubricity, viscosity and total acid number to investigate the mechanism of thickener decomposition. In water contaminated grease, the total acid number and wear scar were increased, the viscosity was decreased due to the decomposition of lithium complex thickener.