Study on a New Type of Lubricating Oil for Miniature Bearing Operating at Ultra-low Temperature

The synthetic oil has been extensively used in the miniature bearing thanks to its good low-temperature fluidity. However, most of commercial synthetic oils cannot meet the requirements for operating at ultra-low temperature, demanding that the lubricating oil should flow below -60 degrees C with its ISO VG being greater than 10 mm(2)/s. In this paper, the relationships between the structures of the ester, polyether, and silicone oils, and low temperature fluidity were investigated. The results showed that the low-temperature fluidity of oil having a shorter molecular chain length and a smaller molecular weight became better. Moreover, except the silicone oil, other synthetic oil cannot reach the requirements for working at ultra-low temperature. Silicone oil has good low-temperature properties, but it has poor lubricating properties in an environment where steel is sliding against steel. Then based on the analytical results, a new type of non-Newtonian oil was developed. The test results showed that the fluidity of the newly developed oil at below -60 degrees C is much better than that of the commercial 4123, 4129 ester type aviation lubricants. In addition, it has good lubricating performance, which is much better than that of the silicone oil. The non-Newtonian oil demonstrates a promising prospect for application in miniature bearings operating at low load and ultra-low temperature.