Monomer Acid is a Vital Part of Industry
There once was a time when the conventional thinking of people unfamiliar with chemistry was that only oil-based products were suitable to produce machine and industrial lubricants. But modern lubricant ingredients such as monomer acid are proving that lubricants can be artificially created in the laboratory and don’t need to rely on the world’s oil reserves.
Need for Lubricants
There has been an urgent need for industrial lubricants since before the beginning of the industrial age. Wherever one piece of metal rubbed up against another, lubricant was required to keep the two pieces of a more complicated machine functioning.
The invention of milling and polishing metals simply slowed down the wear and tear of abrasion. It didn’t stop it completely, and it likely never will. The invention of more and more powerful microscopes like the electron microscope showed these seemingly smooth and polished metal surfaces for what they actually were, surfaces full of minute fissures and bumps that acted like sandpaper when they were included in a machine that used movement against each other as a necessary function of the operation.
Focus on Lubricants
As the engineers and designers grew more aware of the limitations of the metals and other materials to withstand the constant abrasion, they turned their attention to the lubricants rather than milling and polishing the material into ever smoother and finer surfaces.
The microscopes had proven that they couldn’t hope to create a material so smooth and friction-free that it wouldn’t require a lubricant after use for a period. These designers and engineers understood that the surface of the metals wasn’t the only thing causing wear and tear. They were battling the environment as well as their metal fabricating ability. Cold and hot temperatures and humidity were half the battle in keeping a machine operating the way it was designed to.
They began to look more closely at the way a lubricant performed under a variety of temperatures. They started grading lubricants and classifying them as to what uses they performed well. Before petroleum oil was discovered and an industry created around it that changed the modern world, whale oil was considered a high-quality lubricant in fine machinery like sewing machines, and people paid a premium price for the finest whale oil.
Natural Ingredients and Synthetics
Today, the world is moving beyond petroleum products as the production and refining of petroleum pose a danger to the health of the planet. Natural ingredients such as palm nuts and grains have proven to be a viable alternative to petroleum-based lubricants. Necessary lubricant ingredients like monomer acid are being created artificially in the laboratory as well.
It’s becoming more of a financial decision than an urgent one of need. Technology has presented us with several options for creating the lubricants we need from several different sources. We now have the resources to work on lowering the cost of production to a level that works for everyone.
