Sustainability reconsidered

OMC2 technology to reduce friction and wear

TUNAP Sustainability Report | Environmental | GRI: 306-3

The significance of friction and wear

Friction and wear are very important when it comes to sustainability. According to estimates from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the costs for friction and wear make up about 1.2 to 1.7 per cent of Germany’s gross domestic product. Measured against 2020 GDP, this equates to almost 40.0 to 56.6 billion euros. Friction and wear can be significantly reduced with the help of high-performance lubricants, such as TUNGREASE OMC2-2 plus. This saves not only costs, but also resources and it reduces energy losses.

Sustainable lubricants

The usual approach to improving sustainability focuses on the design and manufacture of the product. This also works with lubricants by taking aspects such as renewable raw materials, biodegradability and water hazards into account during development. But often, losses in terms of the performance of the lubricant have to be accepted. Disadvantages include shorter re-lubrication intervals and, consequently, increased lubricant consumption or limited wear protection and, as a result, shorter component life. The friction behaviour can also be significantly worse, which leads to higher energy losses and, thus, lower efficiency.



A few grams of high-performance lubricant are sufficient

TUNAP OMC2 technology focuses mainly on optimising the application in which the lubricant is used. The contribution that the lubricant makes in terms of sustainability during its use in machinery and systems is, by far, the main focus. This can be seen in the following examples: investigations have shown that the life of power tools that have been lubricated with the high-performance lubricating grease TUNGREASE OMC2-2 plus can be prolonged by almost a factor of five compared to a conventional lubricant. This means that just a few grams of TUNGREASE OMC2-2 plus are needed to save 4 devices.

How OMC2 technology works

As the name suggests, TUNGREASE OMC2-2 plus contains high-performance lubricating grease, the TUNAP OMC2 technology. The principle of OMC2 technology is called micro-flow smoothing. This means that roughness on metal surfaces in the micro and nanometre range are smoothed by physico-chemical reactions and a very robust protective coating is created. This has two effects: on the one hand, the smoothed surfaces can slide past each other more easily, which significantly reduces friction. On the other hand, the material ratio of the contact surfaces is much larger, which means that high stresses are distributed across larger areas and that the protective coating is also protected against wear.



Optimising applications

In other words, the secret behind TUNGREASE OMC2-2 plus is the effective optimisation of metal surfaces to minimise energy losses and prevent wear. TUNGREASE OMC2-2 plus also exhibits a very high degree of ageing stability with the result that the life of components such as anti-friction bearings, gears, sleeve bearings and linear slides are significantly extended.

GRI




GRI: 406-2:
Management of significant waste-related impacts

Area: Materials 301


More information:
Micro smoothing thanks to OMC2 technology: Lubricant Efficiency on a new level


Links:
VSI (German Lubricant Manufacturers Association)


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