Glasswork hot end lubricants improve performance

Glasswork hot end lubricants have to perform in an extremely severe environment, reducing maintenance requirements and wear of machinery while being energy efficient, economical, environment friendly

Synthetic lubricants have become a leader in meeting and even exceeding these expectations as Stephen Harris, Sales Manager at Batoyle Freedom Group - one of the largest independent UK lubricant manufacturers - discusses.

"Batoyle has applied its extensive experience in developing specialist lubricants to the key areas of 'hot-end' lubrication for the glass container industry, utilising cutting edge synthetic lubricant technology as the core of its product development.

Firstly, for Scoop / Gob Accelerator Lubrication....

Traditionally Gob accelerator lubricants are formulated on paraffinic mineral oil based products and are used to aid gob loading and scoop cooling.

The use of these mineral oils can create various problems; By their nature they are readily combustible at temperatures above 300C, which presents serious health and safety concerns when a hot glass gob of 900C is introduced during the loading process.

Frequently this leads to ignition of the lubricant in the scoop and has been known to contribute to factory fires within the industry.

This burning of the lubricant creates carbon and ash formation in scoops and troughs, adversely affecting loading, clarity and quality of the glass.

In order to minimise these problems Batoyle developed Pontus GBF - a water based non-flammable fully synthetic formula.

Pontus GBF has proven to eliminate the instantaneous 'flash fire' created as the hot glass gob comes into contact with the lubricant and to greatly reduce problems created by carbon/ash build-up.

Recent testing at one of Europe's largest container manufacturers has shown reduced consumption rates of up to 70% compared with the standard mineral oil product formerly used! Coupled with its bio-degradable characteristics we feel that Pontus GBF type technology represents the next generation of Scoop accelerator lubricant.

Secondly, for IS Machine Lubrication.....

Quality lubrication of an IS machine has always been vitally important to its running at maximum efficiency whilst minimising maintenance downtime.

Historically, mineral oil IS lubricants have caused severe carbon and residue build-up in the hotter areas of the machine.

Low levels of thermal stability resulted in oxidation at high temperatures which led to the creation of varnishes, resins, acidic bi-products and eventually carbonaceous matter.

These deposits led to blockages, lubricant starvation, wear and premature failure of mechanisms and machine components.

The introduction of synthetic IS machine lubrication has been a major leap forward in improving machine efficiency and reducing maintenance requirements.

However, there are numerous chemistries available which can be used to develop these synthetic lubricants.

This chemistry-to-chemistry variation can lead to the formulation of synthetic oils that can perform worse in IS machines than mineral oils.

It is therefore important that users validate a products performance before implementing its use.

Properly formulated synthetic lubricants outperform mineral oils in the following ways.

* Stable Viscosity: As temperature increases the viscosity of all lubricants reduces.

Properly formulated synthetics hold their viscosity characteristics much better than mineral oils as temperatures increase, thus providing improved lubrication.

* Oxidative stability: Degradation of lubricants, leading to the formation of carbonaceous deposits, has a direct correlation to the oxidation stability of the lubricant.

The onset of oxygen starts the process of degradation.

Properly formulated synthetics have extremely high resistance to oxidation, thus extending the time and temperature at which the onset of oxidation occurs and minimising the adverse effects this causes.

Manufactured from a complex mix of synthetic based fluids and compounded with highly sophisticated enhancing additives, Atlas X220, is a high performance synthetic lubricant for IS machines that meets the performance specifications of all the major IS machine OEMs.

Its performance benefits over traditional mineral oil based products have been dramatic.

It has exceptionally high oxidation/thermal stability which reduces carbon residues and deposit formation to a minimum.

This eliminates the problem of lubricant starvation and injector blockage, dramatically reducing costly premature wear, fluid leakage and resultant fire hazards.

This, coupled to the improved lubrication achieved at both high and low temperatures has led to enhanced machine performance, extended intervals between machine overhaul periods and ultimately to increased production efficiency.

* Shear Spray Lubricants: In recent times, conventional mineral oil based shear spray lubricants have been replaced with synthetic products.

Industries need to become ever more 'environmentally friendly' has led to newer technologies such as Shearmaster 3344 - with its biodegradable characteristics - becoming a standard.

Due to its superior thermal and emulsion stabilities, plus a high tolerance to hard water salts, Shearmaster 3344 has demonstrated exceptional lubrication, cooling and corrosion protection which can greatly extend the life and cutting performance of the shear blade.

Such benefits have been realised by many of Europe's largest container manufacturers that have embraced Shearmaster 3344 at the heart of their operation.

* Mould Dopes: Very few areas of the Glass Container Industry have come under as much scrutiny as the manual swabbing of moulds.

There have been many attempts to limit the exposure that the machine operator has when lubricating the blank and blow moulds, from the introduction of pre-coats and spray coating of the moulds to carbon deposition from the burning of gases.

None of these approaches have proved as universally effective as the traditional graphite base manual swabbing compounds.

To date mineral oil based compounds are still the formulations of choice.

The Batoyle Mouldmaster range has proven to be very popular in this area.

They provide an ultra clean swabbing compound demonstrating excellent film foaming characteristics which aids the formation of the parison in the blank mould.

Mouldmaster grades generally can be used for both blank and blow mould swabbing compound.

Does the 's' factor have a future role to play in swabbing compound formulations? In most areas of hot end lubrication, synthetic lubricants have without doubt taken a leading role in the efficient, economic and environmentally friendly operation of machinery in the Glass Container Industry.

Undoubtedly, they will impact on the area of swabbing compounds at some stage - quite possibly led by the push for 'food grade' products or even biodegradability issues.

Synthetics would then not just be the best option - they would be the only option".

Batoyle is a major supplier of lubricants to the Glass Container Industry in the UK and Europe and is exported to more than 50 countries worldwide through a strong network of distributors.

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