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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 10 (February 1, 1930)

Compounded Oils

Compounded Oils.

Mineral oils are compounded with small proportions of animal and vegetable oils, for particular purposes. The vegetable and animal oils (commonly termed “fixed oils”) usually employed are refined rape oil, peanut oil, castor oil, neatsfoot oil, tal-low oil, lard oil, sperm oil and fish oils. These fixed oils vary in colour, viscosity and saponifying value. They also possess properties of great adhesion and “greasiness” or “oiliness.”

This property of greater adhesion is a particularly valuable qualification for lubrication; especially for large, slow moving journals, where the supply is furnished by means of drop or wick feed oiling. Under such conditions lubrication is attained through the formation of a complete oil film, resulting largely from the adhesive property of the fixed-oil content.

The fixed oils will emulsify readily with water, which qualification is also retained after the mixture or compounding of the fixed oil with the mineral oil. This property of a compounded oil is utilised to advantage where oil stains on fabrics, due to carelessness in handling the lubricant, must be removed by washing and scouring. Mineral-oil stains, if set by time or oxidised by sunlight, cannot be eliminated from fabrics by any scouring method.

This emulsifying property of compounded oils is also utilised where continuous operation is demanded and where adverse operating conditions, causing overheating of the bearing, are relieved through the application of water… Water which reaches the bearing surface, instead of washing away the oil film, produces a rich oily emulsion or lather of exceptional lubricating value.

The greater adhesiveness of a compounded oil is also of value under severe service conditions, where a heavy-bodied mineral oil is too thick to be distributed in a complete oil film, and where the use of a lighter-bodied compounded oil will assure the correct formation of the oil film and satisfy lubrication requirements.