Butter is a common name for lubricating grease. What are the main components of butter?  

Let's slowly introduce the basic composition of butter:

We can write the formula for butter as follows: butter=base oil+additives+thickener

Butter is mainly composed of three parts: thickener, base oil, and additives. The thickening agent content in general butter is about 10% -20%, the base oil content is about 75% -90%, and the content of additives and fillers is below 5%.

l. Base oil

Base oil is the dispersing medium in the dispersed system of butter (lubricating grease), which has a significant impact on the performance of butter (lubricating grease). Generally, butter (lubricating grease) uses medium viscosity and high viscosity petroleum lubricating oil as the base oil. Some also use synthetic lubricating oil as the base oil to meet the needs of mechanical lubrication and sealing under harsh conditions, such as ester oil, silicone oil, polyolefin oil, etc.  

2. Thickener

Thickener is an important component of butter (lubricating grease), which is dispersed in the base oil and forms the structural skeleton of butter (lubricating grease), allowing the base oil to be adsorbed and fixed in the structural skeleton. The water resistance and heat resistance of butter (lubricating grease) are mainly determined by thickeners. There are two main types of thickeners used for preparing butter (lubricating grease). Soap based thickeners (i.e. fatty acid metal salts) and non soap based thickeners (hydrocarbons, inorganic and organic). Soap based thickeners are divided into three types: single soap based (such as calcium based grease), mixed soap based (such as calcium sodium based grease), and composite soap based (such as composite calcium based grease). 90% of butter (lubricant) is made from soap based thickeners.

3. Additives and fillers

One type of additive is what butter (lubricating grease) contains, called a solvent, which makes the combination of oil and soap more stable, such as glycerol and water. Once water is lost in calcium based grease, its structure is completely destroyed and it cannot form grease. For example, glycerol can adjust the viscosity of grease in sodium based grease. Another type of additive is the same as in lubricating oil, such as antioxidants, anti-wear and rust inhibitors, but the amount used is generally higher than in lubricating oil. Sometimes, in order to improve the resistance of lubricating grease to flow and enhance lubrication, graphite, molybdenum disulfide, and carbon black are often added as fillers.