Lubrizol® 5370C Grease Additive
Turning Up The Heat
Improving The Heat Resistance Of Lithium Grease
Lubrizol® 5370C is a boron ester grease additive that improves the heat resistance of lithium 12-hydroxystearate greases. To be effective, grease must remain in the places where it’s needed, delivering superior performance under a wide range of conditions. Grease that liquefies or “bleeds out” under high temperatures can lead to uneven lubrication of equipment, resulting in wear, downtime and costly repairs.
Designed for use in all 12-hydroxystearic acid-based lithium soap greases, Lubrizol 5370C grease additive provides significant benefits to manufacturers and end-users.
The Challenges
Grease producers today face the challenges of time, capacity and variation. Manufacturing lithium complex grease using conventional complexing acids requires a lengthy processing cycle, which limits the quantity of lithium complex greases that can be produced. And any batch to batch variation in the process, particularly in terms of dropping point, can be costly and time consuming.
When process variations result in batches with a low dropping point, the product cannot be sold as a complex grease. Instead, the batch must be reworked or discarded.
The Solution – Lubrizol 5370C
It’s a fact that simple lithium soaps are faster to manufacture than complex soaps. Lubrizol 5370C bridges the gap between lithium complex and lithium simple soap greases by increasing the 12-hydroxystearic acid-based soap’s heat resistance to the level of a complex grease. The end result is a high dropping point lithium grease with the process cycle times of a simple soap, a possible 40% time savings over conventional manufacturing processes
Lubrizol 5370C Delivers:
- Improved heat resistance
- Better performance
- Higher dropping points
- Stable grease consistency over a broad temperature range
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Proven Results
Lubrizol 5370C’s effectiveness in improving heat resistance has been demonstrated in traditional ASTM dropping point tests as well as high temperature rheology studies. They confirm that greases containing Lubrizol 5370C are more resistant to softening and bleed at high temperatures than conventional lithium greases.
Dropping Point ASTM D2265
| Description |
Lithium 12- hydroxystearate |
Lithium 12- hydroxystearate +3% wt Lubrizol 5370C |
Conventional LIthium Complex |
Dropping Point ASTM D2265 |
207°C |
>280° C |
>280° C |
| High dropping point in lithium grease based upon 12-hydroxystearic acid. |
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Additional Benefits
- Enhanced oxidation resistance
- Simpler, faster and more economical method of producing high temperature lithium greases
- Greases perform over a wider temperature range than conventional lithium complex greases
High Temperature Performance
In rheology studies, the elastic modulus (G’) of the simple lithium grease additized with Lubrizol 5370C does not decrease as much as the simple lithium grease. Lubrizol 5370C exhibits excellent stability of G’ that has been shown to relate to resistance to softening as temperatures increase. This translates to a more uniform consistency over the entire temperature range.


At the completion of the high temperature rheology tests, the appearance of the simple soap exhibits a complete separation of oil and soap. In contrast, the boron ester additized grease using Lubrizol 5370C retains its grease-like appearance, indicating that the thickener structure is stable after exposure to temperatures as high as 260° C.
| Base Li-12 |
Base Li-12 + Lubrizol 5370C |
 |
 |
SEM Micrographs
| Base Li-12 |
Base Li-12 + 3% Lubrizol 5370C |
 |
 |
SEM micrographs show visually that the presence of Lubrizol 5370C causes a physical change in the appearance of soap fibers. An increase in fiber association results in a more dense fiber network.
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Oxidation Resistance
Three base greases containing identical base oils and no antioxidants were tested by ASTM D5483 at 155° C. The results are plotted in the graph below. The simple lithium grease and the azelaic acid complex grease both show similar oxidation induction times (OIT). The simple lithium grease additized with Lubrizol 5370C shows improved oxidation resistance as exhibited by an increased OIT.

Lithium 12-Hydroxysterarate Greases
ASTM D2265 Dropping Point Test Results
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Base Grease |
100 |
98.5 |
97 |
97 |
94.5 |
| Lubrizol® 5370C |
|
1.5 |
3.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
| Lubrizol® 1395 |
|
|
|
1.5 |
|
| Lubrizol® 5235 |
|
|
|
|
4.0 |
| Dropping Point (°C) |
207 |
263 |
283 |
>316 |
>316 |
| Synergistic with ZDDP products and packages that contain ZDDP |
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Global Availability
Lubrizol 5370 is available right now and in place for global distribution. This product is compliant with worldwide standards and protocols.
Technology Leadership
It is what is behind Lubrizol products that sets us apart
- The most innovative technology on the market
- Unmatched research, development and testing
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