AM-97-42 IMPACT OF BASE OIL TRENDS ON FUTURE LUBRICANT FORMULATIONS - THE ADDITIVE PERSPECTIVE

Description:

Base stocks and additives have been considered important components of a finished lubricant. As lubricant performance standards continue to “raise-theperformance- bar”, they have both under gone changes in their structure. With base stocks being 70 to 99 percent of a blended lubricant, their performance is increasingly important to lubricants of the future. We are seeing the lubricant design process begin a transition from a general approach providing the same performance with various base stock slates to an era of base stock performance segregation for key products. Some interesting questions arise. Will the next few years show the emergence of base stock quality as a lubricant performance feature? Will blended lubricants have more unique additive systems designed to take advantage of a particular stock’s inherent attributes? Segregation of base stocks by specific product performance needs may very well be a product platform decision that marketers will need to consider for their operations. Will separate base stock slates be needed for different lube product lines (automatic transmission fluid vs. crankcase oils for example)? A positive response to any of these questions means that base stocks and.additive systems will be more integrated than we have seen in the past. This is a challenge to base stock producer, oil marketer, and additive supplier alike.