 |
Though AMSOIL Inc. was founded in 1972, its story begins in the mid 1960s, when Lt. Col. A.J. "Al" Amatuzio, a jet fighter squadron commander, was impressed by the superb performance of synthetic lubricants in jet engines (in fact, only synthetics stand up to the performance demands of jet engines) and began studying their possible automotive applications. In 1972, after an intense period of research and development, Al Amatuzio introduced the first synthetic motor oil in the world to exceed API automobile service requirements.
Before Mobil 1 there was “AMSOIL” The First in Synthetics”® for over 35 years AMSOIL Inc. has been the leader in synthetic motor oil formulation since its introduction of the world's first API rated synthetic motor oil in 1972. By specializing exclusively in the synthetic lubricant technology, AMSOIL is able to optimize the most advanced chemistries available.
*First to develop an API-rated 100 percent synthetic motor oil.
*First to introduce the concept of "extended drain intervals" with a recommended 25,000-mile/1-year drain interval.
*First U.S. company to utilize the NOACK volatility test as a standard of performance excellence.
*First to produce synthetic motor oils for diesel engines, racing engines, turbo and marine engines.
*First to introduce synthetic oils that legitimately contribute to improving fuel efficiency.
*First to manufacture synthetic gear lube for automotive use.
*First to manufacture a 100:1 pre-mix synthetic 2-cycle oil.
*First to manufacture a synthetic automatic transmission fluid for automotive use.
What Are Synthetic Lubricants?
SYNTHETIC LUBRICANTS
Synthetic lubricants are chemically engineered from pure chemicals rather than refined from crude oil. That gives them significant advantages over refined oils.
Pure - The feedstocks from which synthetic lubricants are made do not contain sulfur, nitrogen or other elements that invite the formation of sludge and other products of lubricant breakdown. Synthetic lubricants can be used in higher temperatures than refined lubricants without breaking down. Their resistance to breakdown also allows them to be used longer than refined lubricants can be used. Lubricated systems stay cleaner and last longer with synthetic lubricants. Synthetic lubricants differ from refined oils in three key ways: synthetics are pure, their molecular structure is uniform, and they may be designed to work in applications in which refined oils cannot.
Uniform - The feedstocks from which synthetic lubricants are made feature uniform and smooth molecular structures, which ensures low friction as lubricant layers slide across one another. Reduced friction increases energy throughput for greater fuel efficiency and power and reduces heat and wear for longer equipment life. Molecular uniformity also helps synthetics resist thinning in heat and thickening in cold, which helps them protect better than refined oils over a system's operating temperature range and helps ensure secure sealing.
Field experience has shown that synthetics can give economic benefits when used in place of mineral oils which were working satisfactorily. The benefits fall in five general areas:
Improved energy efficiency
Wider operating temperature range
Increased design ratings
Reduced maintenance
Better reliability and safer operation
Designable - Many different kinds of feedstocks may be used to create synthetic lubricants, allowing a synthetic to be designed for virtually any application. Some feedstocks are ideal for use in extremely cold environments. Others are perfect for use in extreme heat. Some are extremely safe in applications in which refined lubricants pose a fire or explosion hazard. Refined oils simply do not offer the design flexibility synthetics offer.
The design flexibility of synthetics also allows them to be tailored very specifically to the needs of everyday applications, such as automotive engines, commercial equipment or much industrial machinery. That specificity helps ensure long life and peak power, performance and fuel economy from the lubricated system and long lubricant life.
AMSOIL synthetic oils are developed from a synthetic base made with polyalphaolefin (PAO) base stocks.
As with the other synthetics, polyalphaolefins started their commercial life in Germany during the war due to a shortage of petroleum base stocks and their ability to perform over larger temperature ranges. Polyalphaolefins are synthetic hydrocarbons. Unlike the hydrocarbons that make up mineral oil, they are chemically pure liquids and are made from catalytically polymerised ethylene. The resulting products are treated to remove any reactive compounds and then separated according to their viscosities.
Polyalphaolefins can, with the correct use of additives, make most types of lubricant or functional fluid. These fluids are currently finding great favor in the automotive industry in the drive for low viscosity and low emission oils to improve fuel efficiency. As with other synthetics, each viscosity grade is a definitive chemical compound and so there are no light ends to boil off, allowing for the use of much lower viscosity base oils.
Due to their structure, polyalphaolefins have low temperature ability when compared with a mineral oil of similar viscosity. For the same reason these compounds also have a high natural viscosity index and resistance to shearing. This allows for the formulation of wide temperature and multigrade lubricants with little or no V.I. additive.
Although not overly resistant to oxidation at elevated temperatures, they respond well when treated with small amounts of antioxidants, and become more stable than a conventional mineral oil at similar temperatures, with less tendency to form deposits when in service.
Polyalphaolefins demonstrate superior resistance to any reaction with water compared with all the other synthetic and mineral oils. Their pure hydrocarbon structure actually repels water which favors low water pick-up and minimum emulsification. They are also fully compatible with mineral oils.
PAO synthetic base oils, on the other hand, start with a specified petrochemical feedstock which is then completely changed chemically; a brand new product is designed and created through a chemical reaction process.
You start with ethylene, grow it to make an alphaolefin and finish with a final chemical reaction - polymerization and hydrogenation - to make a defined set of molecules, PAOs. Lower molecular weight materials are changed into higher weights. That's the key. The desired molecular structure is designed in advance and then manufactured to explicit specifications. You end up with a base oil which is absolutely consistent from batch to batch and which provides certain performance properties - in low temperature starting and pumping, volatility, wear protection, improved fuel economy - that cannot be matched by base oil produced by either other process, whether it's solvent refined or hydroprocessed.
Consistency is of the utmost importance. An analogy is that when an umpire substitutes a baseball into a game after a home run is hit, that baseball is exactly like the one that was hit out of the park. However, if you mix baseballs with softballs, golf balls, tennis balls or billiard balls, you do not have the equivalent of PAO. But you do have the equivalent of a mineral oil refined by solvent extraction or hydroprocessing.
The hydrocracked base stocks come marketed as Very High Viscosity Index (VHVI) base stocks, but are not made by a synthetic process that starts with specific raw material which is built to produce a specific end product. While they are definitely better than solvent refined base oil, don't be mislead as they don't have the performance properties of PAOs.
In order to meet the coming ILSAC GF-4 performance requirements, many motor oil manufacturers are going to have to at least add synthetic base stocks to their conventional oils, utilizing PAOs more as an additive than as the base stock. Many manufacturers are now jumping on the band wagon with claims of low volatility and improved high temperature performance. AMSOIL was the first U.S. Company to utilize the NOACK volatility test as a standard of performance excellence, and already far exceeds the proposed standard of 15 percent with all of its products.
AMSOIL INC. has continually improved the performance of its products over the years. The best performing oil we've ever made are the oils we make today. In addition, new technology has allowed us to improve performance as the introduction of our Series 2000 oils demonstrated. Our standard products outperform the competition and the Series 2000 products blow them away.
First of all, extreme pressure (EP) additives are not typically used in motor oil. EP additives are used in gear lubes and some greases. This is because they contain sulfur or chlorine compounds that become active under engine operating conditions. In this activated state they react with the water found in by-products of combustion, and form acids which are corrosive to engine components such as bearings.
Engine oils typically use antiwear (AW) additives to prevent metal-to-metal contact within an engine. These are commonly zinc and phosphorus compounds (zinc dithiophosphate or ZDP). These additives are different from EP additives because they activate or bond with metal surfaces at lower temperatures and pressures and do not form corrosive acids. EP additives are intended to withstand higher pressures and temperatures than found in engines. AW additives offer more than enough protection for all engine conditions without any of the harmful side effects of EP additives.
AMSOIL INC. has always used higher quality and a higher level of additives including zinc and phosphorus than most motor oils on the market. These additive contents were determined using spectrographic analysis.
Typical properties of all AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils are:
AMSOIL 100% Synthetic Motor Oils are formulated with advanced Polyalphaolefin (PAO) synthetic base stocks. PAO base stocks are the industry's premier base stock technology, and when combined with an exact blend of premium additives, provide second-to-none protection and performance in the most demanding operating conditions. AMSOIL synthetic oils resists high temperature degradation and flows freely in cold conditions for substantial reduction in engine wear. It provides excellent engine protection, maximum power, improved fuel efficiency and extended oil drain intervals.
Resists High Temperature Vaporization
AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils resist vaporizing in the high temperatures that vaporize petroleum motor oils. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils provide consistent high temperature protection, improved fuel economy and reduced oil consumption and emissions.
Resists Oxidation and Thermal Breakdown
AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils resist the damaging effects of heat, blowby chemicals and oxidation up to 10 times longer than petroleum motor oils. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils resist forming varnish deposits and sludge. It doesn't thicken like petroleum oils, but continues to cool and lubricate, providing peak engine performance and extended drain intervals. In addition, the advanced heat transfer capabilities and high lubricity of AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils reduce excessive operating temperatures of engines, transmissions and gear boxes, so they run cooler, cleaner and longer.
Provide High Shear Stability
AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils surpasses the North American SAE and European ACEA oil specifications for high temperature/high shear (HTHS) viscosity. It doesn't shear back to a lower viscosity oil in the high temperature/high shear conditions of today's smaller, high RPM automobile engines.
Provides Low Temperature Protection
AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils remain fluid at temperatures as frigid as -50°F, permiting easy engine cranking for fast starts and in sub-zero temperatures flows to all engine parts much faster than petroleum motor oils. The exceptional cold temperature properties of AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils provide immediate cold start lubrication, greatly reducing engine wear and prolonging engine life.
Resists Deposit Formation
Because AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils synthetic formulation resists oxidation so well,they run naturally cleaner than petroleum motor oils. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils also contains special detergent/dispersant additives that, when tested after tens of thousands of miles of use in the crankcase, still exhibit outstanding deposit control. The combination of natural detergency and advanced additive package keeps AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils effective for up to 25,000 miles or one year in non-turbocharged gasoline-fueled cars.
Prevents Rust and Corrosion
AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils contains special rust and corrosion inhibitors to protect iron parts, as well as copper, lead and aluminum bearing materials.
|
What Is a Motor Oil?
The four primary purposes of a motor oil are lubrication of all moving internal engine parts to minimize friction and wear, cooling the engine, contamination and corrosion control, and sealing the piston rings and other mating surfaces.
A motor oil is made up of two basic components: base stock and additives. The base stock makes up the majority of the completed oil. The functions of the base stock include lubrication of internal moving parts, heat removal and sealing piston rings. Motor oil base stocks can be made from: 1. petroleum 2. one or several synthetic chemicals 3. a combination of synthetics and petroleum (called para-synthetic, partialsynthetic or synthetic-fortified).
A petroleum base stock consists of many different oil fractions blended together to form the final product. Some of these fractions will "boil off" at relatively low temperatures. Generally, molecules of a petroleum base stock are long carbon chains which are sensitive to the stress of heat. Engine temperatures encourage these chains to break down, changing the physical properties (such as viscosity) of the motor oil.
A synthetic base stock is generally composed of uniformly shaped molecules that are resistant to the stress of heat. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils exhibit a very low "boil off" rate. There are no excessively long carbon chains in their structure to break down and alter the physical properties (such as viscosity) of the oil.
The functions of the additive system include anti-wear, anti-foam, corrosion protection, acid neutralization, maintenance of viscosity, detergency and dispersancy. The additive system is composed of various chemicals that do these specific jobs. Their quality varies widely throughout the lubrication industry, ranging from a bare minimum in some oils (to just meet certain requirements) to exceptionally high quality, as in all AMSOIL Motor Oils.
Improvements in Oil
Motor oils today are vastly different from motor oils 30 years ago. Because of new demands placed on lubricants due to modern engine design, today’s oils must meet stringent requirements in areas of viscosity, wear protection, corrosion protection, acid neutralization, detergency and dispersancy. Variations in these factors determine which service classification rating and viscosity grade an oil receives.
Viscosity
One of the most important properties of an oil is its Viscosity. This refers to the internal cohesiveness of the oil or its resistance to flow. An oil must be able to flow at low temperatures to lubricate internal moving parts upon starting an engine. An oil must also remain viscous or "thick" enough to protect an engine at high operating temperatures.
Viscosity Index Improvers are additives that extend a multi-grade motor oil’s viscosity range. Viscosity Index (VI) indicates an oil’s viscosity characteristics over a wide temperature range. The less an oil’s viscosity changes with temperature changes, the better the oil protects the engine. An oil that changes little with temperature changes receives a high VI and an oil that changes greatly with temperature changes receives a low VI. Better oils have high VIs.
The VI is measured by comparing the viscosity of the oil at 40°C (104°F) with its viscosity at 100°C (212°F). It does not indicate the performance of an oil at low or high temperatures.
Cold Temperature Protection
Pour Point refers to the temperature at which an oil has solidified, due to cold temperatures, and can no longer pour. The Cold Crank Simulator measures the speed at which a shaft can turn in cold-thickened oil and evaluates the "startability" of the oil. An engine must be able to reach a turning speed above 300 rpms for the engine to start. The Mini-Rotary Viscometer measures the speed at which a shaft can turn in cold-thickened oil and evaluates the "flowability" of the oil. An oil must flow to the oil pump inlet to be circulated through the engine for lubrication and wear protection. The results of the Cold Crank Simulator and Mini-Rotary Viscometer are used to assign an oil’s SAE "W" grade. In multi-grade or multi-viscosity oils such as 10W-30 and 10W- 40, chemical additives called Pour Point Depressants are often added to the oil to allow it to flow enough at cold temperatures for the oil pump to be able to circulate the oil to all parts of the engine.
Volatility
Petroleum multi-viscosity oils have various chemical ingredients in them that allow them to protect engines in a wide range of temperatures. Some of these ingredients are used to keep the oil flowing when it is cold. However, these ingredients are very volatile, and through their normal use in an engine (especially when it is hot), these ingredients evaporate, or boil off. Lighter fractions of a petroleum base stock also boil off in heat, which changes the viscosity of the remaining oil. The oil left behind in the crankcase is thicker and doesn’t flow easily when it’s cold. This thick oil can take up to five minutes to freely circulate in a cold engine after starting it. Meanwhile the engine is being starved of oil and not being protected against friction and wear.
Wear Protection
One of an oil’s main functions is to lubricate moving parts to prevent friction and wear. The oil forms a thin film on, around and between parts which work in close proximity with one another. Ideally, a constant flow of oil keeps those parts from rubbing together. Metal to metal contact creates tremendous frictional and thermal forces that can actually weld moving parts together, causing the engine to seize. Today’s modern oils do a very good job of preventing engine seizure once the engine has warmed up. At start-up, however, when there is little oil on moving parts to lubricate them, metal to metal contact can occur. A good motor oil contains Anti-wear Additives to protect engines by bonding to metal surfaces and forming a protective layer between moving parts. This layer does not prevent their rubbing together but minimizes the effects of contact.
Oxidation
Oxidation is the chemical breakdown of oil due to the extreme heat in the engine. Oil oxidation can cause acidic gasses and sludge to form in the crankcase. Acidic gasses combine with water in the crankcase to corrode and rust the engine. Corrosion is especially critical in diesel engines.
To counteract the effects of acids, neutralizing additives are blended into motor oil. An oil’s neutralizing capability is expressed by its Total Base Number (TBN). Most oils for diesel engines in North America have a TBN between 7 and 10, which is sufficient for the sulfur content of diesel fuels found here. AMSOIL manufactures a diesel oil with a TBN of 12. A typical TBN for a gasoline engine motor oil is 5 or 6.
Detergents and Dispersants
Combustion causes carbon buildup and deposit formation on the pistons, rings, valves and cylinder walls. Carbon and deposits affect engine temperature, oil circulation, engine performance and fuel efficiency. Additionally, some combustion by-products slip past the piston rings and end up in the motor oil. These by-products can clog the engine’s oil channels.
Detergents are added to the oil to keep the engine clean. They prevent the build-up of carbon or deposits from burned and unburned fuel and even from the oil itself.
Dispersants are added to prevent the agglomeration of sludge and dirt in the oil. Dispersants hold the dirt particles in suspension rather than allowing them to come together and form deposits. The particles suspended in the oil are eventually removed by the oil filter.
Foaming
Tiny air bubbles are constantly being "whipped" into motor oil by the action of many rapidly moving parts inside the engine. The result is a mass of oily froth called Foam. This foam has very little capacity to lubricate or aid in the cooling of the engine. It is important to minimize foaming in motor oil. The addition of silicone or other compounds in very small amounts makes most oils adequately foam-resistant.
Seal Swell
All motor oils must be compatible with the various seal materials used in engines. Oil must not cause seals to shrink, crack, degrade or dissolve. Ideally, oil should cause seals to expand or "swell" slightly to ensure continued proper sealing.
All AMSOIL Motor Oils exhibit excellent seal compatibility with Fluorocarbons, Buna-N, Silicone, Viton and other commonly used seal materials.
Heat Dispersal
Motor oil helps cool the engine. The radiator/anti-freeze system is responsible for only 60 percent of the engine cooling that takes place. This cools only the upper portion of the engine, including the cylinder heads, cylinder walls and valves.
The other 40 percent is cooled by the oil. The oil is directed onto hot surfaces, such as the crankshaft, main and connecting rod bearings, the camshaft and its bearings, the timing gears, the pistons and many other components in the lower portion of the engine that directly depend on the motor oil for cooling.
Engine heat is created from both friction of moving parts and the ignition of fuel inside the cylinder. Oil carries heat away from these hot surfaces as it flows downward and dissipates heat to the surrounding air when it reaches the crankcase.
The amount of oil required to lubricate an engine is actually very small when compared to the amount needed to ensure proper cooling of these internal parts.
The oil pump constantly circulates the oil to all vital areas of your engine.
|
AMSOIL INC."The First In Synthetics" ® PRODUCT CHRONOLOGY
|
AMSOIL INC. "The First In Synthetics"® PRODUCT CHRONOLOGY
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|