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Saponification
Number
Table of Contents
Physical
& Chemical Properties
Saponification is a chemical test indicating the amount of fatty material
in the oil and, therefore, one index of anti-friction. Saponification
is a chemical process of converting fats to soap. Certain lubricants
such as worm gear oils, steam cylinder oils, machine tool way lubricants,
and pneumatic tool oils, contain fatty type additives to improve anti-friction
properties. Saponification number is performed according to ASTM D
94. The saponification number indicates the amount of fatty substances
in the oil. Saponification number is the number of milligrams of KOH
that combines with the fat in 1 gram of oil to form the soap. Therefore,
the higher the number, the greater the amount of fatty material.
Anti-friction is measured directly by laboratory bench tests, where
a low coefficient of friction ("f"), measured under conditions
of boundary lubrication indicates good anti-friction performance.
Examples of bench tests are the four ball test machine and the pin-on-disk
apparatus. A pin-on-disk apparatus with steel sliding on steel, with
a base oil would give an f of 0.10 to 0.15, whereas the addition of
2% oleic acid to the oil, f would be reduced to 0.05 to 0.08. In an
industrial machine, anti-friction reduces power requirements. No bench
machine has been found to correlate satisfactorily with an industrial
machine.
However, if materials and operating conditions in the bench machine
simulates the industrial machine as closely as possible, the results
are useful for screening lubricants, revealing wear mechanism, and
warning of problems. The final lubricant test is in the industrial
machine itself.
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