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5 Problems Solved by Dry Film Lubricants

Today, manufacturers in various industries like electronics, aerospace, rubber, and automotive are addressing various critical issues like durability, performance at extreme high and low temperatures, etc. They mitigate these issues by employing specialized high performance materials and lubricants. The discussion on high performance materials, as well as lubricating items may take up new dimensions, due to innovative inventions in the recent years. In this post, we will concentrate on dry film lubrications and critical issues addressed by them.

5 Critical Issues Addressed by Dry Film Lubricants

Dry film lubricants are solid lubricants used over metal parts or plastic parts for improving their performance. The most popular solid film lubricants are Tungsten Disulphide (WS2), Molybdenum Disulfide (MOS2), hexagonal boron nitride, and graphite. These lubricants address the following issues:

  • Friction: Most applications in a reciprocating or sliding motion wear out due to the friction. Hence, these applications use lubricants to avoid friction, and improve working life of the interacting surfaces. Generally, dry film lubricants are applied between two interacting surfaces to prevent friction, as well as avoid galling and seizing. Machine tools, collets, compressors, pilot valves, CV joints, and seamer rolls are a few examples of surfaces where these lubricants are used to prevent friction.
  • Corrosion and Chemical Resistance: These lubricants are used to create a barrier between two dissimilar metals, which helps prevent galvanic corrosion. Also, the solid lubricants help prevent the buildup of debris, dust, and other foreign contaminants.
  • Temperature Extremes: Generally, the dry film lubricants are developed for temperature extremes. At extreme high temperatures, most liquid lubricants vaporize, however solid lubricants retain their properties. Graphite and MOS2 are used in various mission-critical applications because they can perform at high temperature, as well as in a vacuum. These lubricants are also applied over fasteners that are exposed to high temperatures for long hours. These lubricants help in easy unscrewing and tightening of the fasteners.
  • Extreme Contact Pressures: The dry film lubricants feature lamellar structures, which are oriented parallel to the sliding surface. This results in high load-bearing, and reduction of shear stress. Most metal forming and plastic deformation applications use dry film lubricants.
  • Lubricating Typical Surfaces: Ceramics and plastics are two materials that have gained immense popularity in the recent times. Most chemically inert lubricants available in the market don’t work well over these surfaces. However, dry film lubricants are designed to perform these surfaces, as well as metal surfaces.

Are you planning to switch from liquid lubricants to solid? After reading this post you will get an answer why you should do so. If you are planning to purchase them for your application or are already using them, you can consider an industry expert. Micro Surface Corporation is one such reliable supplier of engineered dry film lubricants in the US.

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