High throughput screening methods for lubricating oil compositions
AssigneeChevron Oronite Company LLC
InventorRobert H. Wollenberg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method for determining deposit formation tendencies for a plurality of fluid samples of different compositions is provided. Each sample includes one or more lubricating oil compositions containing at least one or more base oils of lubricating viscosity and one or more lubricating oil additives. The methods can advantageously be optimized using combinatorial chemistry, in which a database of combinations of lubricating oil compositions are generated. As market conditions vary and/or product requirements or customer specifications change, conditions suitable for forming desired products can be identified with little or no downtime.
Claims23
A high throughput method for screening lubricating oil composition samples, under program control, comprising the steps of:
- (a) conducting molecular modeling of at least one base oil of lubricating viscosity and at least one lubricating oil additive to provide leading candidates of the at least one base oil of lubricating viscosity and at least one lubricating oil additive for combination to formulate a leading candidate lubricating oil composition sample for testing;
- (b) containing a plurality of the leading candidate lubricating oil composition samples comprising (i) a major amount of the at least one leading base oil of lubricating viscosity candidate, and (ii) a minor amount of the at least one leading lubricating oil additive candidate in varying percentages in a plurality of test reservoirs;
- (c) measuring deposit formation of each sample comprising heating the sample to a predetermined temperature in the presence of a substrate and determining the amount of deposits formed on the substrate after a predetermined period of time by determining the weight of the substrate containing deposits and comparing the determined weight with the weight of the substrate to provide deposit formation data for each sample;
- and,
- (d) outputting the results of step (c).
A system for screening lubricant performance, under program control, comprising:
- a) a supply of a major amount of at least one base oil of lubricating viscosity;
- b) a supply of a minor amount of at least one lubricating oil additive;
- c) a plurality of test receptacles;
- d) means for conducting molecular modeling of the at least one base oil of lubricating viscosity and the at least one lubricating oil additive to provide leading candidates of the at least one base oil of lubricating viscosity and at least one lubricating oil additive for combination to formulate a leading candidate lubricating oil composition for testing;
- e) means for combining selected quantities of the major amount of the at least one leading base oil of lubricating viscosity candidate with selected quantities of the minor amount of the at least one leading lubricating oil additive candidate in the plurality of test receptacles to form a plurality of leading candidate lubricating oil composition samples in the plurality of test receptacles;
- f) receptacle moving means for individually positioning the test receptacles in a testing station for measurement of deposit formation of the respective sample;
- and
- g) means for measuring the deposit formation of each respective sample in the testing station comprising means for heating the sample to a predetermined temperature in the presence of a substrate and means for determining the amount of deposits formed on the substrate after a predetermined period of time by determining the weight of the substrate containing deposits and comparing the determined weight with the weight of the substrate to obtain deposit formation data associated with the sample and for transferring the deposit formation data to a computer controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.