Tribological behaviour for refined, bleached and deodorized of palm olein and palm stearin using fourball tribotester

Abstract

Vegetable-based lubricants are much more biodegradable compared to lubricants produced from mineral oil. Due to the increasing concern about health and environmental damage caused by mineral-oil based lubricants, there is a growing worldwide trend for promoting the use of vegetable oil as lubricants in a number industries, Nowadays, vegetable oil is viewed as having the potential to substitute the conventional mineral-oil based lubricating oil due to its environmental friendly properties such as being biodegradable and non-toxic. In this research, refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm olein and palm stearin were used as lubricants to evaluate their tribological behaviors using four-ball tribotester. The objectives of this research are to determine the friction value and wear characteristics of RBD palm olein and palm stearin using fourball tribotester. The experiments were run under various loads, sliding speeds and lubricant temperatures for one hour as recommended by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The results focused on the friction result obtained and observation of wear scar image on the sliding surface which was compared with the results of paraffinic mineral oil. The result shows that friction value for RBD palm olein is lower than RBD palm stearin. However, both RBD palm olein and RBD palm stearin give lower friction compared to paraffinic mineral oil. Thus, RBD palm olein and RBD palm stearin can be used as lubricant in mechanical system in terms of friction reduction.