The best way to understand the capabilities of the grease or greases you use is, of course, to use them. Depending on the application and the need, you may have several greases around the shop for multiple purposes, using one for high speeds and another for high temperatures or any other specialized use.
When manufacturers explain the capabilities of their greases, they’re generally talking about the additives. Starting from mineral oil-based or synthetic oil (the oil is the delivery vessel), a pressure additive will help with high-pressure applications, a temperature additive will be used for high-temperature applications, a detergent is added when cleaning is essential, etc. This is highly simplified and the list can go on and on, but the key takeaway is that greases can be very specialized in their design.
What’s In Your Grease
Like any product in any industry, greases will be marketed based on their strength(s) and how and where manufacturers intend them to be used. In other words, if a grease is a high-temperature grease, that’s all the manufacturer will talk about. The focus is on what it can do, but typically there’s no discussion or clear mention of what it can’t do. If that one thing is all your shop needs, that’s fine. But if you’re like most shops, your grease needs are multi-faceted, so you may be turning to several different greases to meet those varying needs. Or, you’re using a multi-purpose grease, but it’s not quite meeting expectations, and you haven’t figured out why. This is where looking at Product Data Sheets (PDSs) comes in handy.
Comparing Product Data Sheets
A product data sheet shows the grease’s purpose, capabilities, ideal applications, and how it performed on standardized tests. And here’s the secret on the PDS test results: no matter the product, no matter the manufacturer, the results are always going to be good. This is because manufacturers will only list the tests in which their products excel, just like they’ll only market the product based on the capabilities it excels at.
So a grease designed for high-temperature applications will list all the temperature tests in which it succeeds, but will omit test results for say, roll stability or rust, or whatever tests/capabilities don’t show good results.
So if your grease isn’t multi-tasking the way you’d like it to, or you’re using multiple greases in your shop, grab the product data sheets. And compare them to the PDS for Min-Lube.
Min-Lube All-Purpose Grease
On the first page, you’ll see Min-Lube has outstanding mechanical stability and is an all-purpose grease that can be the one and only grease you need in your shop for almost all applications. If that sounds like a hefty claim, move on to page two of the PDS. This is where we list all the tests we run on Min-Lube, including the results and test methods.
With Min-Lube, our list of test results is long because Min-Lube does so well in so many areas. It’s a true, all-purpose grease that can outperform competitor products. Our comprehensive additive package focuses on thermal, oxidative, and mechanical stability, which prevents fallout and keeps Min-Lube reliable in all applications while excellent in rust and corrosion prevention.
Like we said at the beginning, we recognize that using a grease is the best way to understand its true capabilities. Request a free sample of Min-Lube to see how versatile it can be for your shop.
