High-Performance Gear Oils

Flexible Formulation of Industrial Gear Oils

With VISCOBASE® synthetic base stocks, we at Evonik offer absolute flexibility in formulating industrial gear oils. Beyond that, our field-proven NUFLUX® technology for ready-to-use formulations meets and exceeds international standards and multiple OEM specifications.

Equipment owners can easily switch to a high-performance gear oil formulated with NUFLUX® technology based on VISCOBASE® high viscosity base fluids. This is a comparatively simple and cost-effective way to ensure the durability of equipment, minimize maintenance, and extend oil drain intervals, all of which have a significant impact on the total cost of ownership (TCO).

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Case study: Extend the life of your mining equipment – by NUFLUX® technology

Case study: Reliable operation at dolomite quarry – Improved bearing protection by NUFLUX® technology

Key Benefits

Longer service life and durability of gear units and components
Reduced maintenance costs and effort through longer oil drain intervals
Full compatibility: oil changes are possible without adapting the equipment
Reliability: field-proven and certified by gearbox manufacturers

Hand holding a purple gear icon with a checkmark inside, positioned in front of industrial machinery.

Better Gearbox Performance Starts with the Right Oil

Gearboxes are everywhere where a motor's movement - the torque - must be converted into a larger movement, or vice versa. Gear oils protect gearboxes from wear and thermal overload and minimize gear friction and churning problems so that they can work reliably.

This is why gearbox lubrication is crucial: a high-quality gear oil formulation increases the service life of the equipment.

Evonik's NUFLUX™ technology, when applied to industrial gear lubricants is designed to achieve more productivity, less downtime and optimal fluid service costs.

Improving the Durability of Gearboxes with High-Performance Gear Oils

The requirements for gearbox protection are many and varied, but always high. Gear oils must protect the gears in the most diverse applications, often in harsh environments, such as the cement industry, various conveyor belts, or the energy and transportation sector. Whether small or massive, gearboxes are often installed in places that are difficult to access, such as offshore wind turbines, or in the heart of plants or ships.

Consequently, Evonik collaborates with lubricant formulators, OEMs and end-users to develop high-performance gear oils that maximize the lifetime of gearboxes. These lubricants optimize the operation and maintenance of gearbox, providing wear protection and cleanliness.

Delivering High Performance for Tough OEM Demands

The high demands of industrial gearbox manufacturers for industrial gear oils with a long service life leads to increasing complexity: The gear oils should perform as much as possible in the smallest possible quantities - often under high thermal stress and, in some cases, high dirt loads. In addition, they must be fully compatible with all materials and inner parts of the gearbox.

Accordingly, meeting the strict specifications of the OEMs to obtain their approvals requires time and a high level of know-how. In particular, the approval of gear oils for the large gearboxes of wind turbines, which play a major role in the generation of renewable electricity, requires many extensive tests.

Optimizing the Operating Temperature Window, Reducing Costs

These requirements are supplemented by the expectations of the equipment owners who purchase and use the gear oil. Many operators of industrial plants must reduce energy consumption to comply with CO₂ reduction regulations. At the same time, they are under high cost pressure, and gearbox maintenance is complex, costly, and involves downtime - not only in wind turbines. Long oil drain intervals (ODIs) are therefore essential.

The switch from either a mineral standard oil with a basic performance level or a costly PAO or PAG industrial gear oil to a high viscosity base fluid formulated with NUFLUX® technology ensures that gearboxes can operate in an optimum operating temperature window (OTW). This gear oil formulation has a significant impact on oil aging, energy efficiency, durability of the gearbox, and total cost of ownership.

VISCOBASE® and NUFLUX® Technology

VIDEO

Watch our video about the NUFLUX® Technology to learn more about the Ready-to-Use IGO formulation.

VIDEO

Watch how Evonik’s NUFLUX® technology helps optimize lubricant performance, improve efficiency, and support more sustainable industrial operations.

Video: Ready-to-Use IGO Formulation
Video: NUFLUX® Technology

Flexibility in Formulation While Saving Time and Money

VISCOBASE® are synthetic base stocks developed by Evonik that provide absolute flexibility in formulating efficient and durable industrial gear oils. However, to develop a new industrial gear oil, formulators must usually overcome many obstacles to get approvals from OEMs. This costs time, effort, and money.

To develop a new industrial gear oil, formulators must usually overcome many obstacles to get approvals from OEMs. This costs time, effort, and money. With its NUFLUX® technology for ready-to-use formulations, Evonik offers customers reductions in all three aspects. NUFLUX® describes a formulation concept that helps customers formulate gear oils based on their synthetic VISCOBASE® base oils and allows for fast market access with all relevant gearbox manufacturer approvals such as Flender, SEW, ZF, Hansen, Renk and more. It also meets or exceeds international standards and multiple gearbox manufacturer specifications.

Our Promises to Gear Oil Formulators

VISCOBASE® brand high viscosity base fluids offer various solutions to the challenge of formulating gear oils to meet customer requirements.

They bring solubility and adjusted polarity to the gear oil, providing the flexibility to be blended with different low-viscosity base oils and lower the pour point.

This results in supporting supply chain robustness and cost efficiency in business operation.

The synthetic base oil VISCOBASE® from the Evonik portfolio has a high viscosity index and can therefore be combined with low-viscosity components such as group III base oils, which reduces oil costs. As a robust alternative to polyalphaolefins (PAO), it shows the same performance and, in some cases, even performs better in terms of solubility behavior. The addition of esters or other solubilizers is not necessary. Its reliable performance has been demonstrated over many years of field use across a wide range of equipment types.

The combination of base fluids reduces churning losses and friction losses, which significantly improves the energy efficiency of gears compared with those using mineral-based gear oils - and thus contributes to a reduction in the carbon footprint of the machinery in use.

Upon customer request the carbon footprint of the gear oil itself can also be further reduced with our VISCOBASE® synthetic base oil based on certified renewable raw materials with a low product carbon footprint. These can be seamlessly integrated into the established NUFLUX® formulation technology.

The Group III base oils which are part of NUFLUX® formulation can be exchanged by re-refined Group III base oils.

Evonik’s products are suitable for the whole range of the formulation environment, from mineral to synthetic, re-refined, and renewable base stocks.

Backed by extensive application expertise, our team supports formulators in navigating the path from formulation development to OEM approval, with additional support for field performance demonstrations in selected applications.

Evonik’s Performance Test Lab (PTL) is at the heart of our fluids value proposition and customer support. With more than 40 installed fluid test rigs, PTL is perfectly equipped to support customers very efficiently. In the field of gear oils, the PTL is officially certified by Flender to run Flender Foam Test, the FZG Scuffing test, the FAG FE8 wear test, and the FVA 54 Micropitting test.

References from End Users

RAG Mine in Bottrop | Germany

To demonstrate the impact of the industrial gear oil on equipment, tests were carried out on gearboxes that are usually used in conveyor belts in mining. Two viscosity classes were tested, ISO VG 220 and 320.

In each class, mineral oil was used as a reference, as well as a PAO-based synthetic oil and NUFLUX® A (VISCOBASE® synthetic base fluids with Gr.III base oil) and NUFLUX® B (VISCOBASE® synthetic base fluids with PAO base oil).

Dolomite Quarry in Africa

NUFLUX® technology was tested vs. conventional mineral gear oil, both working back-to-back in the same gearbox of a conveyor belt system in the mine, which transferred dolomite from the mine to a processing unit that was 1.8 km away and 300 meters up. In this test, Evonik’s NUFLUX® ISO VG 320 gear oil was compared against an OEM-approved mineral-based lubricant of the same viscosity. This comparison was completed over six months.

Key Findings: Significant Extension of the Oil Change Interval

During the test, NUFLUX® lowered the operating temperature by around 6 to 13 °C compared to mineral gear oil and even performed slightly better than PAO-based fluids. Lowering the operating temperatures of the gear oil by 10 °C reduces the oxidation rate by around 50%, potentially doubling the oil change interval, resulting in longer equipment lifetime. This in turn increases the productivity of the system, as downtime is also reduced.

Key Findings: Less Vibration, Better Bearing Protection

NUFLUX® technology offers superior bearing lubrication when compared to conventional gear oil. Better lubrication means reduced friction problems, less vibration, extended oil drain intervals, and longer equipment lifetime. For a mine, such as this dolomite quarry, these advantages translate into productivity gains and lower maintenance costs.

INFOBOX

Maximum Performance
Excellent Low-Temperature Flow Performance

VISCOBASE® Synthetic Base Fluids

Customers are selecting VISCOBASE® synthetic base fluids as a forward-thinking, innovative alternative to high viscosity synthetic base stocks like PAO. Retaining all the benefits of fully synthetic fluids when combined with low viscosity components, either with fully synthetic or Group III mineral oils, VISCOBASE® delivers full performance and may reduce blending costs. Available in bulk or drum, Evonik offers several viscosity options for formulating flexibility.

VISCOBASE® synthetic base fluids boost viscosity index and have excellent package solvency. VISCOBASE® products are used in a variety of automotive and industrial applications, including automotive rear axle and manual formulations, general industrial gear and wind turbine gearbox lubricants.

Unique benefits such as effective viscosity control at low temperature, shear stability and oxidation resistance all contribute to provide extended fluid service life in stressful applications. VISCOBASE® provides superior blending efficiency over many competitive synthetic high viscosity alternatives, mixing easily with various base fluids and additive systems.

Learn more about our VISCOBASE® Synthetic Base Fluids

VISCOPLEX® Pour Point Depressants

Our pour point depressants reduce the pour point, so that the industrial gear oil shows excellent flow behavior even at low temperatures. This means that plants or wind turbines can be operated smoothly even in unfavorable weather.

Learn more about our VISCOPLEX® Pour Point Depressants

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