Effects of Different Vegetable Oils and Additives in Gearbox Operation and its Condition Monitoring

Abstract

There is significant worldwide attention in recent time on condition-based intensive care of gear transmission systems across the globe from both industries and academia. The reason behind this is an effective CBM will always extend the life span of the rotating equipment and helps in reducing maintenance cycles. For the mechanical component’s good working cycle, different entities such as lubrication oil properties, operating speed, load condition, lubrication [oil and additives], temperature, and wear component are the major parameters which play contributory role. Vegetable oil as lubricants has many good and useful physicochemical properties. Vegetable oils possess high lubricity, viscosity Index, flash point, and low losses in evaporative. In this research work, a comparative behavior study of a designed worm gear test rig is done between selected commercial gear oil (HP EP 90) and natural edible and non-edible vegetable oils (used as gear oils) (natural coconut and castor oil) with and without additives (garlic oil and rapeseed oil). The temperature analyzing techniques were used to describe the performance of worm gear system as a function of load applied on the worm, and the temperature responses of a worm gear are plotted with varying loading conditions for the selected oils and additives. A mechanical closed-loop test rig is developed for carrying out this work.