Lubrication of Automotive Worm Gear

119
LUBRICATION OF AUTOMOTIVE WORM-GEARS

By J. Whittle, B.Sc. Tech. (Associate Member)*
INTRODUCTION
ALTHOUGHIN THE UNITED KINGDOM
there are still substan-
tial fleets of buses, trucks, and taxis fitted with worm-gear

axles, the number of new vehicles fitted with this type of
axle is decreasing and vehicle manufacturers are turning to
other forms of final drive-spiral bevel, hypoid, and double
reduction-and foregoing some of the advantages of the
worm-gear such as low propeller shaft line and large
reduction ratio in one stage.
This decline in the popularity of the worm axle is due to
a number of factors including high initial cost, and maintenance problems arising from the wear and pitting (which
can be severe) of the bronze worm-wheel. In addition,
thickening due to oxidation of the conventional mineral oils
generally used in these axles is becoming more of a problem
as engine powers, and hence axle temperatures, increase.
Unfortunately, worm-gear lubricants have not received the
same attention from the petroleum industry as, for example,
t
hypoid-gear oils. However, the work of Merritt ( ~ )and
Watson (2), who have conducted experimental work on
disc machines, and also the keen interest and work of
Wilford (3) must be recalled.
There is little doubt that the worm-gear, with its particular advantages, could be retained for increased duty if
a lubricant with qualities superior to those of a straight
mineral oil could be found and used. The basic requirements for such a worm-gear lubricant would be:
(1) Friction should be lower than with a mineral oil.
Low friction implies low oil and metal temperatures and
also low power loss which can lead to fuel economy.
(2) Wear and pitting should be less than with mineral
oils. To some extent this should follow from the lower
friction but a new lubricant should give inherently less
wear and pitting than mineral oils.
(3) Oxidation stability should be better than inhibited
mineral oil. Because rate of oxidation is a function of oil
temperature and concentration of catalyst (copper from
the bronze in soluble form or in the form of small
particles) lower temperatures and lower wear should
improve oxidation. The lubricant should also possess
good inherent or induced oxidation stability.
The MS. of this paper was received a! the Institution on 29th April
1960. For a report of the meeting, In London, at which this paper
was presented, seep. 146.
* Shell Research Ltd, Thornton Research Centre, Chester.
t A numerical list of references is given in the Appendix.
Proc Znstn Me& E r ~ (A.D.)
s
(4) A viscosity-temperature relation as good as, or

better than, the normal grade of worm-gear oil. Wormgear oils usually have a viscosity index (V.I.) of about
100. This ensures that channelling or excessive oil drag
is minimized at cold-starting conditions.
( 5 ) The improved lubricant should have no serious
detrimental side effects.
(6) Overall it should be economically competitive with
mineral oils.
This paper deals with several investigations which have

been carried out on the various aspects of worm-gear
lubrication which have led to the development of a premium
grade of lubricant which appears to meet most, if not all,
of the basic requirements stated above.
FRICTION AND POWER L O S S
Walker (4) in an earlier paper to the Institution discussed

the relation between power loss and temperature rise in a
worm-gear and he showed that the relation was linear. The
temperature which the oil attains is governed by the heat
input and heat dissipation balance, and the primary cause
of power loss is friction in the bearings, seals, and gear
teeth. The lubrication of the gear teeth may be boundary,
hydrodynamic, or a mixture of both. If it is boundary then
the friction arises from metal-to-metal contact, but if it is
hydrodynamic the heat generation will arise from the
viscous shearing of the oil in the contact area. Heat will
also be generated by the effort required to displace oil
during the normal rotation of the components. This power
loss is described as the churning loss.
The rate of heat loss from the oil will be governed by the
heat-transfer characteristics of the oil, the configuration of
the axle, for example internal or external finning, axle
casing thickness and materials, cleanliness of the axle, and
air temperature and air speed past the axle. Thus the
temperature attained by an oil in service will be influenced
by a number of factors not least of which is the oil itself.
The oil factor, in fact, occurs three times; it can affect the
friction, the churning, and the heat transfer to the axle
casing.
However, Walker (4) used only one oil, castor oil, so the
effect of oils upon the power loss-temperature rise relation
was investigated in the authors tests.
The results, shown in Fig. 1, were obtained with a
No 3 1960-61
J. WHITTLE
120
100
90
80
70
q60
YI
f
240
5 30
0.
20
10
0
POWER LOSS-h.p.
x Minerdoils.
oils.
Figures indicate test number.
0 Synthetic-type
Fig. 1. Relation between oil temperature riSe and power

loss froom the axle, 7 mYe/h condition
heavy-goods lorry on a high-torque dynamometer. The
axle was water-cooled to enable the power loss to be
determiued. These results reafl6rm that, as a first approximation, power loss is directly proportiod to oil temperature
rise. However, closer examination of the results shows that
all the high-viscosity oils lie above the mean regression line
whilst all the low-viscosity oils fall below the line.
Thus, for the same power loss a high-viscosity oil runs
hotter than a low-viscosity oil; a secondary effect which is
obviously due to better heat dissipation with the lowviscosity oil.
I n general, then,it can be concluded that power loss in an
axle is proportional to the oil temperature rise, and that oil
temperature rise can be used to compare the efficiency
of different oils in the same axle operating under the
same conditions. Hence the two terms are regarded as
synonymous in the rest of this paper.
Performance of mineral oils

Effect of vkcosity on temperature rise
The effect of viscosity depends upon the operating conditions, and four types of condition have been studied:
Mild.
. High-speed (30 mile/h) top gear, low
torque.
Moderate . Intermediate speed (20 mile/h), 3rd
or 4th gear, moderate torque.
. Low speed (7 mile/h), 2nd gear, high
Severe
torque.
Very severe . Less than 5 mile/h, 1st gear, maximum
torque.
Little work has been done on the very severe case because
of the difficult test conditions, and because the condition is
normally only transient in service.
Fig. 2a shows the generalized result obtained at the mild
operating conditions. It indicates that oil temperature
increases as the oil viscosity is increased.
At the moderate conditions, Fig. 2b, the same trend
Proc Imrn Me& Engrs (A.D.)
OIL VISCOSITY
a Mild conditions.
b Moderate conditions.
c Severe conditions.
Fig. 2. Variation of oil temperature rise with oil viscosity

at three torque conditions
applies but the slope of the temperature rise-viscosity
curve is less than for the mild conditions.
The generalized results at severe operating conditions
are shown in Fig. 2c. The most important feature is that
low-viscosity mineral oils give extremely high temperatures
and frequently an equilibrium could not be obtained. Highviscosity oils give more stable temperatures, although at a
fairly high level. The extremely high temperatures with the
low-viscosity oils are accompanied by excessive wear of the
bronze wheel. These observations show that lubrication
with the thin oils had failed completely. The results are
thus in agreement with the general field experience that
low-viscosity mineral oils give exceptionally high temperatures and severe wear at high-torque conditions-even if
these conditions are only transient as in bus operation
during accelerations away from stops.
Effect of compounding on temperature rise
By compounding is implied the addition to mineral oil of

a certain amount of fatty material. Compoundingis known
No 3 1960-61
to confer lower frictional properties to mineral oils under

certain conditions. However, no reliable data were previously available to indicate the conditions in a worm-gear
at which compounding was beneficial. Tests were therefore
carried out to determine (1) the loading conditions at which
compounding agents give some benefit, (2) the effect of
concentration of fatty material, and (3) any interaction with
viscosity.
At mild and moderate conditions the particular fatty
material tested-acidless
tallow-had
no effect upon
temperature rise (Fig. 3a). However, at the severe torque
condition (1200 rev/min, 2nd gear), the two thinnest
straight oils gave exceptionally high temperatures, as shown
in Fig. 3b, and the addition of 73 per cent acidless tallow
121
brought about a substantial reduction in running temperature. The addition of 15 per cent acidless tallow resulted in
a further slight reduction of temperature. At this concentration of acidless tallow the thinner oils gave lower temperatures than the highest viscosity oil. The addition of fat to
the highest viscosity oil also appears to result in a slight
reduction in the operating temperature at this condition
(Figs. 3b and 4).
0
7;
ACIDLESS TALLOW-per
15
cent
10
KINEMATIC VlSCOSlN
a Engine speed 2000 revlmin. Top gear. Full throttle.
20
30
AT 21O0F-centirtokes
Acidless tallow concentrations:

o 7f.per cent
0 15 per cent.
--- Curve not well defined (1200 revlmin).
---- 1200 rev/&.
2000 rev/&.
x 0 per cent
Fig. 4. Relation between oil temperature rise and viscosity,

2nd gear c d i t i o n s
Non-mineral lubricants
7+
ACIDLESS TALLOW-per
15
cent
b Engine speed 1200 revlmin. 2nd gear. Full throttle.

Viscosity levels x S A E 140.
0 S A E 90.
0 SAE 75.
Fig. 3. Effect of viscosity and compounding upon axle-oil

equilibrium-temperature rises
Proc Instn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
Certain vegetable and animal fats possess excellent lubricating properties for bronze and steel combinations. A
particularly effective material is castor oil, which is well
known as a worm-gear lubricant. However, it oxidizes and
thickens rapidly in axle use and is not very susceptible to
oxidation inhibitors. Blends of castor oil and low-viscosity
synthetic esters have also been studied. Such blends have
fkictional properties similar to those of castor oil but a lower
viscosity and, in addition, powerfd oxidation inhibitors
soluble in esters but insoluble in castor oil can be used.
More recently the performance in worm-gears of polyalkylene oxide derivatives has been studied at Thornton.
Laboratory disc-machine tests showed that the friction
obtained with this material was much lower than that with
a mineral oil and possibly lower than that obtained with
castor oil. When suitably inhibited this lubricant is much
more oxidation-stable than are inhibited mineral oil or
castor oil.
The temperature-rise data obtained on these materials
No 3 196061
J. WHITTLE
122
are discussed in the following sections and the general trend

of these results is indicated in Fig. 5. Typical viscositytemperature data of these lubricants are shown in Fig. 6.
t
a
01
0
100
TEMPERATURE--'F
110
300
Fig.6. Typical viswsity against temperature

data for$ve oils
ot
1
',
OIL VISCOSIT'I
u Mild conditions. b Moderate conditions. c Severe conditions.

0
+
x
----
middle of the S A E 20 range, namely 7& CS at 210F. This

oil has been tested (with and without oxidation inhibitor) in
several axles and the generalized results are given in Fig, 5.
At mild conditions the oil gives a low temperature consistent
with its low viscosity, but at severe conditions it gives
considerably lower temperatures than the equivalent
viscosity mineral oil. Because of the very low viscosity
leakage problems have been encountered with this type of
lubricant.
Castor-synthetic blend.
Syntheticoil A.
Castor oil.
Synthetic oil B.
Mineral oils.
Fig. 5. Temperature rises of certain non-mineral oils

compared with general results for mineral oils
Castor oil
Fig. 5a indicates that, at mild conditions, castor oil appears
to give the same temperature rise, within experimental
error, as a mineral oil of similar viscosity.
At moderate conditions, the results on castor oil fall
slightly below the curve through the mineral oil results, as
shown generally in Fig. 5b.
Under severe conditions the castor oil result lies substantially below the mineral oil curve, as shown generally in
Fig. 5c.
Castor oil-ester blend
The synthetic ester, dinonyl sebacate, was blended with the
castor oil in the proportions 64/36to give a viscosity in the
Proc lmtn Mech Engrr (A.D.)
High-viscosity synthetic oil (Oil B)

This has a viscosity at 210F of about 38 cS. The first
practical test on this lubricant was carried out, at the
request of the author's fitm by a heavy-goods vehicle
manufacturer on their high-torque rig. They obtained
extremely low temperatures which were subsequently
confirmed at Thornton (Fig. 5).The lubricant also gave a
low temperature in a trolley-bus axle.
Synthetic Oil A
This lubricant consists of an oxidation inhibited polyalkylene oxide derivative having a kinematic viscosity at
210F of about 22 cS, with a V.I. of 140.
As with castor oil, oil A gave temperature rises approximately the same as those of mineral oils of similar viscosity
at mild conditions (Fig. Sa), but at moderate and severe
conditions it gave temperature rises lower or much lower
than equiviscous mineral oils.
Tests have also been carried out on two long-distance
trucks in conjunction with British Road Services, on a fleet
of single-deck trolley-buses and on two double-deck trolleybuses. In every case oil A gave appreciably lower temperatures than did the mineral oil with which it was compared
(Table 1). It seems a reasonable deduction from the results
and the nature of the operation that the lower temperatures
were partially athibutable to the lower viscosity and
partially to some other inherent property of the lubricant.
London Transport Executive also have tested this
material and, as a result, obtained fuel savings compared
No 3 196061
123
Table 1. Tmperature rise data on synthetic oil A in worm-gear axles

Vehicle
Axle
Test conditions
Overslung
6f.in. centres
6.7511 ratio
Steady 30 d e b on a flat
route
oil
Remarks
SAE 140 mineral oil

OilA
Castor-synthetic
Heavy-goods lorry Overslung

6+ in. centres
6.75/1ratio
Worm speed 2020 rev/&

Input torque 91 1b.ft
SAE 90 mineral oil

Oil A
Castor-synthetic
28
24.5
20
Heavy-goods lorry Overslung

6+ in. centres
6.75/1ratio

Input torque 139 1b.k
Oil A
SAE 90 mineral oil
Castor-s ynthetic
27
22
175
SAE 90 mineral oil

OilA
Castor-synthetic
27
20
18.5
Four square axle

rig
Bus chassis
Overslung
6+ in. centres
6.75/1ratio

Input torque 208 1b.ft
Overslung
6+ in. centres
6.7511 ratio
Worm speed 442 revlmin

Input torque 418 1b.h
Overslung
6+ in. centres
6.7511 ratio
Worm speed 275 revlmin

Input torque 668 1b.k
7 in. centres
6.7511 ratio
Speed 450 rev/&

Torque 510 1b.k
84 in. centres
Normal driving on hilly SAE14Omineraloil

North Wales circuit (140 Oil A
Castor-synthdc
miles)
Maximum speed 30 mile/h
Vehicle loaded with 9 tons
of ballast
54/1 ratio
Normal trunk haul driVina.

Overnight Swansea-Live;pool, returning following
iight.
Two vehicles involved for
two weeks
2 axles
~~
Operated on a high-torque
dynamometer with constant input power of 35
h.p. The axle was watercooled for these tests in
order to measure power
loss.
44.5
Castor-synthetic
275
30
Castor-synthetic
98
52
53
~~
SAE 140 mineral oil

OilA
Castor-synthetic
70
54
60
'hese are actual oil temperatures not rises above ambient.
48
41
37
Lean temperature rises over

circuit
I
sAE140mind
ehicle 1
oil
ehicle 1
3
2
Single-deck
trolley-buses
84 in. centres
9-7/1ratio
Tro.lley-buses in normal service. Moderately hilly

route
SAE 140 mineral oil

OilA
76
67
verage temperature rises on

9 and 12 buses respectively
Double-deck
trolley-buses
Single axles
9.67/1ratio
Trolley-buses in normal
services. Hilly route
SAE 140 mineral oil

Oil A
Castor-synthetic
97,121
72,74
81.5
'ests on two buses. Lower

temperatures on new axle.
Higher temperatures on
old axle.
with the use of an S A E 140 mineral oil. It follows fiom this

that the power loss in the axle is less with oil A, and that the
operating temperature is lower.
Mechanism of lubrication
It has been shown that the oils tested fill into distinct
groups, depending upon the temperatures which they give.
A study of these groups indicates the mode of lubrication
which exists at the different operating conditions.
At mild conditions it appears that the type of oil (that is,
mineral, compounded, or synthetic) has no effect upon the
oil temperature rise in an axle, and the only characteristic
which appears to be important is oil viscosity. Highviscosity oils give high temperatures and low-viscosity oils
low temperatures. In the past, this variation of temperature
Proc Znsm Mech Engrs ( A D . )
with viscosity has been attributed to the effect of churning

of the oil. Fig. 7, however, shows that only one-third of the
temperature rise is due to churning at 30 mile/h so that the
remainder of the temperature rise must be due to friction.
Because this temperature rise due to friction also increases
with increasing viscosity, it follows that viscous friction is
involved. Thus it can be concluded that under these mild
conditions the lubrication is hydrodynamic.
At severe conditions, on the other hand, oil type has a
profound effect upon the temperature rise and power loss.
At the highest torques at which equilibrium temperatures
can be obtained, mineral and compounded oils give
higher temperatures than castor and synthetic-base oils. In
particular, extremely heavy wear accompanied by high
temperatures was obtained with thin uncompounded oils.
No 3 1960-6i
J. WHITTLE
124
2 70
160
UI
:50
y1
40
2
2 30
n.
u
E 20
iti
10
0
40
50
OIL
70
60
90
80
IM)
110
120
I30
VISCOSITY AT OPERATING TEMPERATURE-centistokes (cS)
Mineral oils.
Churning loss results.
o Non-mineral oils.
Fig. 7. Comparison of churning loss (obtained by towing the

vehicle) and friction loss in axle of Albion l o r y
These two facts indicate that at severe conditions lubrication is boundary or principally boundary.
Between these two extremes the lubrication can be a
mixture of boundary and hydrodynamic, and the results
shown in Figs. 8 and 9 were obtained to determine the
relative friction over a wide range of conditions. In these
graphs power loss is plotted against the parameter ZN/P,
4
I 3
v)
m
9
DL
g2
0
Ioo0
ZNlP
Zoo0
where Z is oil viscosity in centistokes at the bulk oil temperature and atmospheric pressure, N is the wormshaft
speed in rev/&, and P is the wormshaft torque in lb. ft.
In Fig. 8 there is a certain amount of scatter in the power
loss (corrected to 35 h.p. input power), but the trend follows
the classical pattern, that is, there is a critical value of
Z N / P which gives a minimum power loss; above this value
power loss increases slowly with change of ZN/P, and
below the critical value power loss increases rapidly. In
Fig. 9 the power loss results have been corrected by subtracting the churning loss and the results replotted on the
basis of log ZN/P in order to emphasize the difference
between the two types of oil. The superior result given by
the non-mineral oils at low values of ZN/P is most marked.
At high values of ZN/P above the critical value, the nonmineral oils still give less power loss than the mineral oils.
This result appears to be at variance with the statement
that the lubrication is hydrodynamic but there is another
factor which helps to explain this apparent anomaly and t h i s
is the effect of viscosity at high pressure. For simplicity the
viscosity used in the expressionZN/P has been the viscosity
of the oils at the temperature in the axle and at atmospheric
pressure. However, in the case of hydrodynamic lubrication
the important viscosity is the viscosity of the oil in the tooth
contact where the temperature and pressure are higher than
in the bulk oil.
Now the non-mineral oils (that is, castor oil, castor-ester
blend, synthetic oils A and B) have lower viscosities at high
pressure than mineral oils of initially equal viscosity as
shown in Fig. 10. It is difficult, however, to calculate the
actual pressures in the contact so that only a qualitative
correction can be made to the viscosity. If this is done and
temperature rise is related to viscosity at a high pressure
3Mo
o Non-mineral oils.
Fig. 8. Relation between total power loss in a worm
rear axle and ZN/P
Mineral oils.
4
? , 3
52
I
10
I00
1000
low0
ZAYP
Fig. 9. Relation between friktion power loss in a worm

axle and log Z N / P
10
5000
1oooo
15ooO
PRESSURE-lb/in2
Fig. IO. Variation of viscosity at 100F with

pressure
No 3 1960-61
x NIP, the curves for the two types of oil tend to approach
each other. Obviously the higher the pressure (that is,
torque) the greater will be the correction. This fits in with
the observed greater discrepancies between the two types
of oil at the lower values of ZN/P.
W E A R A N D PITTING
Wear and pitting of the bronze worm-wheel are two closely
allied phenomena which are very important in the economic
operation of worm axles. There is, however, very little
published information, and reliable test data on axles take
a very long time to accumulate. Wilford (5) comments that
wear and pitting vary to a considerable extent even within
a group of vehicles at a particular garage and it is this
variability which defeated earlier attempts to differentiate
the performance of one lubricant from another.
Disc machine tests

Evans and Tourret (6) have described the disc machines in
use at Thornton and these will be only outlined below.
Briefly the test machine consists of a 4-in. diameter bronze
disc in contact with, and rotating in the same direction as,
a 2-in. diameter steel disc, so that there is relative sliding
and rolling motion at the line contact. The steel disc can be
loaded against the bronze disc so that friction arises and
wear and pitting of the bronze are induced. New bronze
discs are used for each test. The initial diameter of the discs
is measured. The test is run until pitting of the bronze has
been obtained and the hal diameter of the disc is measured.
As the results are subject to wide scatter it is necessary to
carry out several repeat tests on each lubricant.
Information has already been published (7) which shows
that a number of factors affect pitting and wear, in particular:
(1) High oil viscosity reduces wear and pitting tendency.
(2) Rough surface finish of the mating steel increases
the wear rate of the bronze.
(3) High loads and stresses increase wear and pitting.
(4) High oil temperature also increases wear and
pimng.
125
More recent information on factors affecting wear and

pitting is given in the following sections:
The effect of fatty materials

The effect of compounding and castor oil on pitting life is
shown in Table 2 although the real fat effect is probably
masked by the influence of the viscosity of the lubricants.
Table 2. Effect of fat on pitting
Oil
SAE 140 mineral oil

SAE 140 mineral oil+io pe;
cent acidless tallow
Castor oil
Redwood
No.1
a t 140F
Mean $me
to pmmg,
h
618
66
446
347
40
34
Effect of extreme-pressure additives

From time to time various extreme-pressure (e.p.) additives
have been suggested for use in worm-gear oils and a test
was carried out with one particular hypoid-gear-oil additive.
This was used at 9 per cent concentration, that is, as normally recommended for hypoid-gear oils, in an S A E 90
base oil and its performance was compared with that of an
equal viscosity base oil. The tests were run at 70C and the
results are shown in Table 3.
It will be seen that there is conclusive evidence that under
these test conditions discs lubricated with an active e.p.
oil are much more prone to pit than discs lubricated with
straight mineral oil. The wear rate also appears to be higher
with the additive oil.
There is some evidence from other tests, however, that
some mild e.p. additives do not give such severe pitting as
active e.p. additives.
Effect of oil acidity
As an oil oxidizes in service its acidity rises and it seemed
possible that high oil acidity could increase the pitting
tendency of the bronze. Duplicate tests at 70C bulk oil
temperature were carried out, therefore, with an unused
SAE 140 mineral oil and with the same base oil oxidized
in the laboratory to 0.7 and 2.65 mg. KOH/g (mg of
Table 3. Test results
1
I
Oil
SAE 90 mineral oil
SAE 90 mineral oi1+9 per

cent acuve e.p.
Hours
run
51a
20
;:
8b
I ::::;:I
20
8
8
a Scouting test-includes
0.0060
0.0026
0~0010
0.0045
0.0026
Wear rate,
in.x10-3/h
0.226
0.173
0.067
0.16
Wear,
in.
Time on
weaktest,
26.6
15
::
15
3
3
24 hours run-in.
0.067
1.5
0.87
Pitting
None
None
1 small pit
None
Heavy
Moderately heavy
Heavy
Heavy
b Scouting test.
No 3 1960-61
J. WHITTLE
126
Table 7. Pitting times and wear rates
potassium hydroxidelgramme) respectively. The oil data

before and after testing are shown in Table 4.
Oil
Oil
Before testing
Acidity,
Viscosity,
mg. KOH/gl CS at 210F
o
;:765
32
2:4
After testing
Acidity,
mg. KOH/g
Acidicoil
Viscosity,
CSat 210F
I ;:% I id: I 1
0.15
0.10
32.72
39.23
59.10
31.12
34.21
60.36
The second column of figures in the group are for the

oils in the duplicate tests.
The results on the duplicate tests are given in Table 5
and the condition of the discs after fuaher running is shown
stripin the photographs of the discs shown in Fig. 11,
Plate 1.
These differences are not statistically significant at the
90 per cent level but there appears to be a trend for pitting
and wear to be worse at higher acidities. It was also possible
that the acidity effect had been masked by the rather high
increases in oil viscosity which had occurred in the
laboratory prepared samples.
Table 5. Pitting and wear results
Oil
Wear rate, in./h x 10-4
Pitting started, h
Y
Z
0.68
0.15
723.2
780
725
0
7.5
0.3
7.65
0.162
0-80
1.72
0.587
Table 8. Pitting and wear results on wear disc

machine
O
Oil
The viscosity data show that the effect of viscosity upon

pitting has been minimized and the before and after
acidities show that the large difference between the two oil
samples has been maintained during the test. The results
in Table 7 show the effect of this acidity upon pitting and
wear in the disc machine.
It is quite evident that the highly acidic oil gives earlier
and more severe pitting of bronze discs than the neutral oil.
Prcc Instn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
13.3
20.5
Synthetic lubricants
With the advent of the synthetic lubricants it was necessary
to find out their wear and pitting tendencies before carrying
out extensive field tests. The performance of synthetic oil A
was of particular interest and tests gave the idormation
shown in Table 8.
Because of the lower operating temperature expected with
oil A in service and its lower viscosity in the comparative
test it was considered that it should give a reasonable performance in axles.
39.73
39.38
39.7
38.65
Time to pitting,
h
SAF! 140mineral
Table 6. Mineral oil analysis
213 (no pitting)

50 (no pitting)
I Wear rate, in./hx10-4
The effect upon wear is still not statistically significant

although the averages of the two pairs of results suggest that
the highly acidic oil gives more rapid wear than a neutral oil.
In a worm-axle pitting is primarily caused by metal
fatigue due to normal cyclic loading and to shock loading.
These latest results suggest that high oil acidity can severely
aggravate the pitting tendency and may also cause more
rapid wear of the bronze wormwheel. Thus oil acidity
should be kept as low as practicable. This can be accomplished by fiequent oil changes or by reducing the rate of
oil oxidation. The most powerful way of reducing the oil
oxidation rate is to reduce the operating oil temperatures.
Subsequently, further tests were carried out with an oil

(removed from buses on test) of higher acidity, about 73
mg. KOH/g. The viscosity of the reference oil (neutral) was
adjusted to be similar to the highly acidic oil to eliminate
viscosity influence. The oil data before and after testing are
shown in Table 6.
.
Neutral oil blend
Acidic oil before test
Neutral oil after test (averagej
Acidic oil after test (average).
Time to pitting, h
67.4
91
Mean 86.1+
loo+
Bronze disc wear,

in./h x 10-4
1-05
0-33 Mean 0.52
0-18
Mean0.90
Test conditions: Oil temperature 70C.

Disc speed 1500 rev/&.
Disc loading 2180 S;.
(Discs run in for two hours at loading of 825 SC.)
Axle tests
Oil A is the only oil with which comparative data in axles
have been obtained in this series of investigations and some
details of the results obtained follow.
Heavy-goods lorry on chassis dynamometer
The vehicle used was fitted with a 4-cylinder, 4.88-litre
diesel engine, friction clutch, 5-speed gearbox, and %in.
No 3 1960-61
Proc Insrn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
Plate I
No 3 196041
J. WHITTLE
Plate 2
Fig. 14. Axle teeth after 400-hour high-torque

test on synthetic oil
Fig. 15a. Condition of worm-wheel teeth after 5000

miles on synthefic oil A
Fig. 15b. Condition of worm-wheel teeth after 5000

miZes on S A E 140 mineral oil
Proe Instn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
No 3 196061
centres 6.7/1 overhead worm rear axle. This %in. centre

worm drive was offered by the vehicle manufacturers as a
suitable subject for test because in their experience it had
only just sufficient load capacity to give an adequate service
life when using straight mineral oils. Production vehicles
of this type were, from an early date, fitted with 7-in.
centre worm drives having 30 per cent greater load capacity.
On the dynamometer rig the rear axle of the lorry was
clamped to a bedplate and the rear wheels were replaced
by two 36-in. diameter chain wheels which were coupled
to a slow-speed electric generator by a 611 ratio chain drive
(Fig. 12, Plate 1, and Fig. 13). Electric fans were installed to
provide cooling air to the engine and gearbox to prevent
overheating. The axle was water-cooled in order to measure
power loss as described earlier.
127
slight wear of the worm-wheel, which is shown in Fig. 14,

Plate 2. At this condition an SAE 140 mineral oil gives
severe wear and pitting of the wheel. During the 400-hour
test the average oil temperaturewas 5 1"Cand the data given
in Table 9 on the oil were obtained.
Table 9. Results of endurance test
Viscosity at 210F Acidity,mg. KOH/g
Initial.
Final .
22.59
2264
0.05
0.10
TACHOMETER DIAL
NGINE
RACK SOLENOID
AC.
MAINS
REAR
AXLE
TACHOMETER ~
FIELD SWITCH
LOAD
BANK
A
GENERATOR
Fig. 13. General arrangement of assend& and

controlsfor lorry and dynamometer
The axle casing was filled with 1 gallon of test oil but
before beginning the test proper the axle was run in for two
hours at 1200 engine rev/&, part rack setting, and 3rd
gear which resulted in a worm speed of 442 rev/& and an
estimated torque of about 238 1b.ft.
After the run-in was completed the torque was increased
to the maximumoutput of the engine to give about 416 1b.a
worm-shaft torque at a speed of 442 worm-shafl rev/&.
This is equivalent to the vehicle carrying its normal gross
load up a 1 in 9 gradient at 7 mile/h. Observations were
made at regular intervals of rear-axle oil, cooling air
temperature and engine-oil temperature, and power
absorbed by the generator.
A ri00-hour endurance test under the above conditions
was successfully completed. There was no pitting and only
Proc Znstn Mech Engrr (A.D.)
OXIDATION
Whilst the mechanical aspects of worm-gears are very
important, another performance criterion-oil oxidationmust now receive consideration.
No 3 1960-61
128
J. WHITTLE
Mineral oils
Mineral oils thicken in use in worm-gear rear-axles of road
vehicles because they oxidize at the high operatingtemperatures in the axles, the oxidation being catalysed by
the bronze wear particles from the worm-wheels. Additives
may be used to inhibit oxidation and hence increase oil life
and prolong drain periods. Several additives are available
which are satisfactory under moderate operating conditions.
An additive oil was recently developed which on the basis of
laboratory tests appeared to be more resistant to oxidation
under severe conditions than the equivalent base oil and
other inhibited mineral oils.
A field oxidation test was carried out to determine
whether this new additive oil would give results in service
comparable to those in the laboratory. The trials were
arranged in collaboration with Bradford City Transport
who kindly placed full test facilities at the authors disposal.
The operating conditions in the rear axles of trolley-buses
at Bradford are considered to be as severe as any in Great
Britain; hence if the additive oil were to give improved life
at Bradford the laboratory findings would be substantiated.
It was decided to test three oils as follows:
(1) An inhibited SAE 140 mineral oil, coded Yellow.
(2) A straight SAE 140 mineral oil, coded White.
(3) The White oil plus the new additive, coded Blue.
Each oil was tested in four trolley-buses running for

distances of up to 26 000 miles in service. The oils were then
interchanged between buses until all oils had been tested in
all buses in the hope that in this manner the effect of axle
on oil deterioration could be estimated and eliminated from
the effect of additives.
The trolley-buses were double-decker vehicles with
90-hp motors and the drive was through an underslung
worm rear-axle, the casing of which was not finned. Some
of the axles had been recently serviced; others had not been
serviced for distances up to 88 000 miles.
Before filling with test oil each axle was flushed first with
spindle oil and then with 1 gallon of test oil to ensure that
the old oil and wear debris were removed as completely as
was practicable.
The buses, which were all fiom one garage, were run on
normal service and a record was kept of the milage and
amount of top-up for each bus. Two-ounce samples were
taken approximately every two weeks from each axle for
analysis. The viscosity of the used oils was determined at
100F and 210F.The acidity of each sample was determined as the milligrams of potassium hydroxide required to
neutralize the acid in one gram of oil (mg. KOH/g).
Results of the trial
It would be tedious to quote all the individual results but
typical data for rate of change of viscosity with milage are
shown in Fig. 16. In Fig. 17 is shown the relation between
viscosity at 210F and acidity of the used oils and indicates
that although considerable scatter is present a broad linear
relation exists between these two oil properties. Only
10
EFFECTIVE MILEAGE-
12
I4
16
1000 miles
Fig. 16. Typical vkosity-milage curves
30
32
34
36
38
40
42
44
46
48
50
52
KINEMATIC VISCOSITY AT 21OF-centistokes
Fig. 17. Relation between oil acidity and viscosity

viscosity has therefore been used in the further analysis of
the results.
Table 10 gives the increase in viscosity at 100F per
1000 miles for each vehicle on each oil. These figures have
been obtained from the best straight lines relating viscosity
and milage, due allowance having been made for the effect
on used-oil properties of fresh oil added for top-up. The
typical viscosity-milage curves in Fig. 16 show, however,
that considerable scatter exists about the estimated straight
line relations.
No 3 1960-61
129
Table 10. Increase of viscosity, CSat lOO"F,

per thousand miles
(A correction for oil top-up has been made.)
Bus
Oils
White
Yellow
580
58 1
582
585
586
589
590
592
593
594
595
596
20.46'
11.71'
15.67'
1 .96'
0.77b
0.26b
14.27b
27,54b
5.36c
4.4lC
2.6OC
5.40c
8.37c
8.51a
6.20'
14.6W
4.99'
21.24b
13.46b
1140b
6.6Sb
8.21b
4-7OC
7~15~
6*17c
24.Ogc
11.35a
2.13a
26.62a
35.25'
Mean
9.20
11.40
13.84
Blue
Oil viscosity after

temperature test
Oil temperature
45 CS at 210F
116.5"C
32 CSat 210F
103.1"C
Difference in viscosity 13 CS Differencein temperature 13.4"C
These corrected temperatures have been plotted against

the rate of viscosity increase in Fig. 18. It may be inferred
a First test series.

b Second test series.
c Third test series.
A statistical analysis reveals that the results of the trial

do not show any significant difference between the oils.
This does not mean that there is in fact no difference
between the oils but rather that the trial was not sensitive
enough to detect a difference because of uncontrolled
interfering factors. The analysis showed that because of
the large residual errors there was an even chance that an
improvement of 100 per cent of one oil over another might
have existed without being detected.
Effect of axle temperature on oil deterioration

Towards the end of the first test period the temperature
of each axle was measured during normal operation. The
values obtained are given in Table 11. At that time some of
43
37
39
32
32
34
34
34
38
33
43
37
11
5
7
0
0
2
2
2
6
1
11
5
103
99
108
97
97
101
98
101
104
97
117
118
the oils had thickened considerably. Since it is known that,

within limits, the higher the viscosity of the axle oil the
higher will be the axle temperature, a separate test was
carried out to determine the influence of oil viscosity
upon axle temperature under Bradford conditions. This
96
98
IW
102 104 106 108 110 112 114 116
118 I20
OIL TEMPERATURE-*C
corrected for
011
viscosity
temperature and rate of viscosity increase
iriscosity increase Corrected

ibove initial value emperature,
32 CS
"C
114
104
115
97
97
103
100
103
110
98
128
123
94
Fig. 18. Relation between corrected oil operating
Table 11. Axle oil temperature data
580
581
582
585
586
589
590
592
593
594
595
596
90 92
that for long life the oil temperature should be kept low,
at least below 9O"C, and preferably appreciably cooler. This
could be achieved either by axle design or improved
lubrication.
Although the test was inconclusive so far as the new
additive was concerned it revealed two important details :
(1) For an oxidation inhibited oil to show a definite
advantage in the field its performance in the laboratory
must be several times better than a mineral oil.
(2) It transpired that the reduction of operating oil
temperature was a very powerful method of increasing the
oxidation life of the oil (the old working rule that a
reduction of 10C halves reaction rate-in this case
oxidation rate-seems to apply fairly well to these results).
Synthetic oil
Early tests with synthetic oil A indicated that with suitable
choice of inhibitor it would give the required life under
No 3 1960-61
J. WHITTLE
130
laboratory conditions, and it has already been shown in this

paper that its use results in significantly lower operating
temperatures, which should reduce the oxidation rate in
service.
Disc machine oxidation tests

Before carrying out field trials, some intermediate stage
tests were performed in a m o a e d fiction disc machine.
The oil in the tank was heated to 150C, sprayed into the
line of contact of the discs, churned around by the discs and
returned to the main tank.In this way the conditions in an
axle were simulated with better control than is usually
available in an axle. Wear of the bronze disc provided the
fine particles of bronze which act as the main catalyst in the
oxidation of worm-gear oils. The churning of the oil
ensured that there was considerable air entrainment and the
artificial heating provided a temperature which was
suf5cient to cause a fairly high rate of oxidation (this temperature was higher than is normally encountered in worm
rear-axles although a temperature of 130C has been
observed by Thornton staff in the axle of a trolley-bus
operating with an SAE 140 mineral oil in normal service).
The viscosity and acidity of the oil are measured as the
test proceeds, and in Fig. 19 a typical result with oil A is
oil would have a much longer life than that of a mineral oil.
Consequently a long-term field test was commenced.
Oxidation field tests on oil A

This test was arranged in collaboration with the Mexborough and Swinton Traction Co.Ltd and oil A was tested
in 12 of their single-deck trolley-buses with 12 similar
vehicles running on an oxidation-inhibited SAE 140
mineral oil as a control. As before, oil-samples were taken
periodically and the oil temperatures were measured during
the first few days of the test.
The temperature data are given in Table 13 and it is
evident that an immediate improvement in temperature
was brought about.
At 70 000 miles the inspection data on the oil are as given
in Table 14. By this milage it had proved necessary to
replace the original mineral oil charge and in several (nearly
all) buses the axles contained the third charge of mineral
Oil.
Table 13. Operating temperatures ("C)of two

test oils at the beginning of the test
Meanaxle
temperature,
Vehicle
numbei
"C
7
8
9
10
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
:?}
Y
Y
Y
Y
F4
F4
F4
F4
F4
F4
F4
F4
78
95
67
76
77
Average 78
"C
24
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
F4
F4
F4
F4
F4
F4
F4
20
21
22
23
Average
85
")
74
Mean axle
temperature,
Vehicle rYPe
number
Average
75
-- -
86
Average
92
95
83
Average 88
* Faulty thermocouple.
t No temperature reading taken.
Table 14. Data on used synthetic oil A
Vehicle
number
I00
200
300
400
500
TIME-h
o Inhibited S A E 140 mineral oil.

Inhibited synthetic oil A.
+ Inhibited castor oil.
Fig. 19. Results of laboratory oxidation tests at

150C
compared with typical results on inhibited SAE 140 mineral

oil and inhibited castor oil. Because of the better stability
and lower running temperatures with oil A compared with
an SAE 140 mineral oil it was anticipated that the synthetic
Proc lnnstn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
8
9
10*
32*
33
zzt 1
37
_.
38
39
milage
Test
Unused
71 152
72 233
73 603
68 651
68 296
1352
29205
69
.. 759
70 258
69208
V.I.
Acidity,
mg.KOH/g
100F 210F
-~
141
149
154
201
253
183
141
156
160
153
165
23.0
24.6
25.1
296
44.6
23.8
23.3
25.2
22.6
24.9
23.1
142
141
141
137
138
133
142
141
136
141
136
0.05
0.85
1a 0 0
3.00
2.05
2.10
0.10
0.90
1.90
0.65
1.90
*Suspected contamination with mineral oil judging by appearance and viscosity.

t New rear axle fitted after 67 000 miles on this test. Buses 7 and
34 not now in service.
No 3 1960-61
Thus the contention that greater oil stability and lower

operating temperatures would result in appreciably longer
life appears to have been substantiated.
131
Swinton Traction Co. Ltd for their valuable co-operation.

He also wishes to acknowledge the assistance and advice
of colleagues and to thank the Directors of Shell Research
Ltd, for permission to publish this paper.
CONCLUSIONS
The decline in the popularity of the worm-gear, particularly

for automotive axles has been due, partly, to present available lubricants not being satisfactory for the increased
powers being transmitted.
Oil temperature has been shown to play a large part in
determining (1) how long an oil charge will last and (2)
the rate of pitting and wear of a worm gear Bnd hence the
life of an axle. Anything which can be done to reduce
temperatures will help to prolong the life of the gears and
the oil.
As a result of the work done a synthetic lubricant has
been developed which appears to meet most of the requirements for a superior type of worm-gear lubricant.
APPENDIX
REFERENCES
(I) ~ ~ Z R I T TH.
,
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
(6)
The author wishes to express his thanks to Albion Motors

Ltd, Leyland Motors Ltd, British Road Services (Western
Division), Bradford City Transport, and Mexborough and
(7)
E.
1953 Proc. Znstn mech. Engrs Lond., vol.
129, p. 127, Worm Gear Performance.

WATSON,H. J. 1958 Proc. International Conference on
Gearing, p. 126, The Choice of Gear Lubricants
(Instn Mech. Engrs, London).
WILFORD,
A. T. 1957 Proc. Conference on Lubrication and
Wear, p. 524, Lubrication of Road Vehicle Engines and
Worm-driven Axles with Particular Reference to Vehicle
Fuel Consumption (Instn Mech. Engrs, London).
WALKER,H. 1944 Proc. Zmtn mech. Engrs, Lond., vol. 151,
p. 326, Thermal Rating of Worm Gearboxes.
S m m , H. E. and WILFORD,A. T. 1952 J. Znst. Petrol., vol.
32, p. 75, Service Tests in Rear Axles of Buses and
Trolley-buses.
EVANS,L. S. and TOURRET,
R. 1952 J. Znst. Petrol., vol. 38,
p. 652, The Wear and Pitting of Bronze Discs Operated
Under Simulated Worm gear Conditions.
TOURRET,
R. 1955 Engineering, Lond., vol. 180, p. 888,
Worm Gear Lubrication.
Discussion in London
Mr A. T. Wilford (Companion) said, in opening the discussion, that he would like to compliment the author on his
paper because that was a subject in which he had been very
interested and he had the feeling that he had inspired the
Shell organization to do some of the work they had done.
In the second paragraph of the Introduction to his paper
the author regretfilly remarked that worm-gear lubricants
had not received the same attention from the petroleum
industry as had hypoid-gear oils. There followed a kind
reference to himself, but he, too, had his regrets when he
recalled that castor oil had been used by the former London
General Omnibus Company for lubrication of worm-driven
axle on the six-wheeled LT type buses running on the
London streets in the late 1920s. Its use had to be
abandoned because it had been found impossible at that
time to prevent leakage along the axle half-shafts, thus
leading to oiling up of brake drums. There had been some
evidence that the enforced adoption of an inferior lubricant
resulted in an increase in fuel consumption, though there
seemed to be nothing that could be done about it. It had
taken a long time to get over that trouble, and in recent
years progress in their extensive tests with castor oil, castor
oil-synthetic oil blends and wholly synthetic oil had been
retarded, though fortunately not prevented, for that very
same reason.
In the intervening years their experience with mineral
oil lubricants had not been a happy one, trouble of varying
severity being encountered due to oxidation and, in consequence, a very marked increase in viscosity of the lubricant,
Proc Imtn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
which on occasions reached the condition where it had

become solidified to a leathery mass when cold. Extreme
pressure (e.p.) lubricants proved to be no palliative, and it
had not been until they adopted an oxidation inhibited oil
that the dilliculty had been overcome. It was of interest to
remark that although serious thickening of the oil had been
from that time on avoided, they had never been able to
prove that the change effected any improvement in fuel
consumption, nor had there been any clear evidence that
the life of the worm and wormwheel had been increased,
though there must have been a marginal benefit.
All of their investigations had been carried out with buses
running in actual service, and under such conditions they
had not been able to find any improvement in fuel consumption which could be attributed to a decrease in the
viscosity of the lubricant. Even in an extreme case, when
an oil of SAE 5W viscosity (understood to contain an oiliness additive) had been compared with an oxidation
inhibited SAE 140 oil-two groups of ten buses each being
involved in the test-no statistically significant change in
fuel consumption could be detected.
The nearest they got, had been from tests with a compounded oil of nominal viscosity, 108 CS at 140F which,
compared with the oxidation inhibited SAE 140 oil (nominal
viscosity 147 CSat 140F)yielded a 1 per cent improvement
in fuel consumption, but that figure had been less than the
95 per cent confidence limits applying to the test. It was,
of course, extremely difficult to detect a change in fuel
consumption of as little as 1 per cent-important though
No 3 196061
132
DISCUSSION
it was in terms of money-in tests carried out in service.

The only way in which a reliable result might be ensured
would be by employing large groups of vehicles, but other
factors then intervened to render such a course impracticable.
It was nevertheless somewhat surprising that they had
not been able to establish any relation between fuel consumption and viscosity of the rear axle lubricant. Their
investigations at one stage had been inspired by the results
obtained with engine lubricating oils of low viscosity. They
argued-not unjustifiably it seemed-that if an improvement in fuel consumption could be obtained by using a
lower viscosity oil in an engine, whereby friction losses had
been reduced, it ought to be possible to obtain a similar
benefit, though not necessarily of the same magnitude, by
reducing the viscosity of the rear axle oil.
The author had quoted much evidence to show that,
under conditions of mild and moderate torque power, loss in
an axle decreased with decrease in viscosity of the lubricant.
A characteristic of a bus service in London was the frequent
stopping and starting, there being occasions on which a bus
might encounter as many as 13 stops per mile, and between
6 and 8 stops per mile was quite common. It would seem
likely that the positive reduction in fuel consumption which
they had obtained with certain types of rear axle oils was to
be attributed to the effectiveness of those oils in reducing
power losses under the most severe conditions of operation.
In that connection he might add that there was a summary
in the S.A.E.Journal* which suggested that lower operating
temperatures were obtained with an SAE 140 oil than with
the hypoid 90 oil, the conditions seemed to be exceptional.
Currently, as was commonly known, they were using
oxidation inhibited castor base oils in the rear axles of the
majority of the fleet, but they had also had a not inconsiderable amount of experience with synthetic oil, which, as
mentioned by the author on p. 122, they had tested in comparison with oxidation inhibited SAE 140 oil. They established early on that it led to a saving in fuel consumption
of about 2 per cent, that being the same as that obtained
when comparing oxidation inhibited castor oil with the
oxidation inhibited mineral oil. They were using the synthetic oil in rear axles of some 260 buses, 45 of which
had performed about 80 000 miles on the oil. The oil had
a quite phenomenal resistance to oxidation, being in that
respect much superior to oxidation inhibited castor oil.
After 72 weeks use (equivalent to nearly 60000 miles
running) samples of the oil had been found to have a mean
viscosity of 68.1 CS at 140 (compared with 63.8 CS for
the unused oil), whilst mean acidity was 0.42 mg. KOH/g
(compared with 0.05 mg. KOH/g for the unused oil). They
had concluded from those results that the oil could safely
be retained in use for up to 60 000 miles without being
changed, and for the purpose of obtaining further data a
number of vehicles had been allowed to run for 108 weeks
without oil change, and samples of the used oil were
currently under examination.
* JOHNSON, W.A. 1960 S.A.E. JI., vol. 68, p. 688, Nov., Axle
Gear Wear Cut by S.A.E. 140 Lube.
They had no conclusive information at the moment as to

whether the oil was of benefit in reducing pitting and wear
of worm-gears, but before allowing the tests to proceed to
the stage already reached, they assured themselves that the
synthetic oil had been at least equivalent to oxidation
inhibited SAE 140 oil in respect of its effect on the rear
axle unit.
Nor, unfortunately, had they so far obtained any records
of oil operating temperatures, though they intended to do
so. It might, however, be of interest to give some data
comparing worm-driven axles using oxidation inhibited
castor oil and oxidation inhibited SAE 140 oil respectively,
also comparing worm-driven axles using oxidation inhibited castor oil and spiral-bevel axles lubricated with
hypoid 90 oil.
Considerable care had to be taken in obtaining such
comparisons under service conditions. They had taken
readings fiom buses as they arrived at a selected terminal
after an adequate period in service, and wherever possible
confined their observations to vehicles which had been
operating on the same route. Where that was not feasibleas, for example, when comparing worm-driven axles with
spiral-bevel axles-they had chosen buses which had run
over the same streets for at least one mile, and preferably
two miles, before reaching the terminus.
The results for worm-driven axles-and a number of
vehicles had been involved in those measurements-showed
that with oxidation inhibited castor oil the mean oil
operating temperature was about 20F lower than when
oxidation inhibited SAE 140 oil was in use.
The comparison between worm-driven axles using oxidation inhibited castor oil and spiral-bevel axles using hypoid
90 oil showed that in the latter instance mean oil operating
temperature had been 45F lower. It might also be mentioned that with those vehicles-which had been their new
RM types-the mean oil operating temperature had been
only 36F above ambient temperature.
They were proposing at a suitable opportunity to see if
the synthetic oil used in place of hypoid 90 had any inffuence
on oil operating temperatures in spiral-bevel axles, and
whether it was able to effect an improvement in he1
consumption of the RM bus. The outcome was, he was
afraid, a little doubtful.
It was indeed a pity, as the author remarked, that improved oils for worm-driven axles had taken so long in
coming, though it was unlikely that the delay had influenced
the policy of vehicle manufacturers in changing over to the
inherently more efficient alternative type of axle, of which
the spiral-bevel axle was one.
Mr P.E.B.Vaile (Associate Member) said it was evident

to him that the author and his company had produced a
product which would enable extended operation at high
temperatures, when compared with the more conventional
inhibited or straight mineral oils, or castor oil blends.
He would, however, like to turn to the problem of
operators, who run mixed fleets of worm and hypoid axles,
No 3 196061
where the preference was for a single product to cater for

both applications.
The data presented by the author on e.p. additives
suggested that hypoid oils as a class were roo active for
worm-gear applications. That might be true for oils meeting
the more advanced API service GL-4 or MIL-L-002105A
hypoid requirements, and also for some of the earlier oils
approved against MIL-L-2105 (obsolescent). However,
some hypoid oils, which had been approved just before the
MIL-L-2105 specificationbecame obsolescentin December
1958, used new additives which were more stable at
higher temperatures, such additives also being more recently
approved against the British CS 3000 specification. Those
additives included the use of zinc di-alkyl dithiophosphate,
which acted as a high temperature anti-oxidant and metal
deactivator in addition to contributing to the e.p. properties
of the oil. Such additives, when used at the MIL-L-2105
(obsolescent) level, had also been found satisfactory for use
in the transmissions of one large tractor and earth-moving
equipment manufacturer, where oil equipment temperatures could exceed 120C. There problems of deposit
formation and corrosion of bronze components had been
previously experienced at those temperatures with some
hypoid oils.
He thought that the author might be interested to know
that to his knowledge, at least one SAE 90 hypoid oil
employing such a temperature stable additive had been
widely used in mixed fleets with complete satisfaction. The
cautious recommendation had been made initially to use
that oil up to bulk oil temperatures of lOO"C, and since
viscosity increases had only been slight after manufacturers
recommended oil drain periods, those had been extended
to suit the particular operations concerned, ranging from
twice the recommended period and upwards. Wear and
pitting had, if anything, shown some improvement over
inhibited mineral oils on vehicles which had operated for
at least equivalent milages to the normal axle life. Those
vehicles, incidentally, included tankers, buses and heavy
goods vehicles.
In the United Kingdom he thought that the majority of
worm applications were probably below lOO"C, with such
well-known exceptions as some double-deck trolley buses,
and therdore suitable SAE 90 viscosity hypoid oils could
have some application.
Whilst on the subject of viscosity, he had been interested
to note the author's work indicated that SAE 90 oils gave
temperature rises much closer to synthetic oil A than the
SAE 140 and 250 grades, and that SAE 90 was probably the
optimum viscosity, below which there might be some
danger of excessive wear under severe torque conditions.
He was also aware that other authors had suggested that
higher viscosity oils could effect lower temperatures, but
that might only apply when excessive torque conditions
prevailed, with temperatures well in excess of 100C. He
would certainly be interested to hear the author's views on
that.
Turning to the laboratory oxidation test results, referred
to in Fig. 19, one small point there was that he thought a
Proc Znrtn Mech E w s (AD.)
133
temperature of 150C was certainly unrealistic for the

majority of United Kingdom applications, particularly if
SAE 90 grade oils were used.
He did not, however, wish to detract from the merits of
the paper, and no doubt in hot overseas areas and certain
critical local applications a product such as synthetic oil A
would have some definite advantages. He merely wished to
point out that there would still be many applications in
moderate climates in which suitable hypoid oils could be
used with success and with greater convenience for some
operators.
Mr D. W.Bravey, B.A. (London), said the point which

struck him most forcibly when reading the paper was that
even with synthetic materials possessing exceptional frictional and viscosity temperature characteristics, a compromise had still to be made when selecting a lubricant to
give the optimum all-round performance in a worm axle.
That compromise was with respect to viscosity.
Judging fkom Fig. 5, a very low viscosity synthetic
lubricant, say, 74 CSat 210"F, would give the most efficient
performance in an axle operating under a wide variety of
conditions, providing, of course, that the lubricant possesses
the desirable frictional characteristics. Nevertheless such a
lubricant would certainly give rise to severeleakage problems
in many vehicles in current use.
The viscosity of synthetic lubricant A fell into the
SAE 90 range (at the top end) and had presumably been
selected as an optimum. He would be interested to hear the
author's views regarding the relative merits of synthetic oil
A and the more viscous synthetic oil B, particularly with
respect to power saving.
Two details which were not entirely clear to him were:
firstly, concerning the relation between oil temperature rise
and power loss in an axle. In Fig. 1 it was shown that all the
high-viscosity oils lay above the mean regression line, whilst
all the low-viscosity oils fell below the line. That was said
to be 'obviously due to better heat dissipation with the lowviscosity oil', but he was unable to follow that reasoning.
The second detail was with respect to Fig. 7, in which the
churning losses in an axle operating under mild conditions
were indicated to be only one-third of the total losses. The
remainder were attributed to viscous friction, not surface
friction. He would like to know what was meant by the term
'viscous friction' in that context, and also to hear in more
detail how the particular tests providing those data had been
canied out.
Mr R. Tourret, MSc. (Associate Member), said that in
Fig. 2, showing the variation in oil temperature rise with oil
viscosity under Werent conditions of loading in a heavygoods lorry, a remarkable similarity to his own results (7)
obtained with small industrial worm-gear units were shown.
That might, of course, be expected, but it was useful to have
confirmation. It showed that quite s m a l l industrial units
could be used for that type of work instead of full-scale back
axles.
As the author commendably admitted, several of the
No 3 1960-61
134
DISCUSSION
differencesobserved were not statistically signiscant at the

90 per cent level. However, there seemed little doubt that
the general picture emerging was that the synthetic oil A
had a greater resistance to oil deterioration than the
purzinrlm mineral oil used for comparison, in that less acid
was developed. Also, the presence of acid might well promote pitting. While the tests with oils of about 23 mg.
KOH/g acidity gave results (Table 5 ) showing little effect,
the later tests with oils of about 73 mg. KOH/g acidity
gave results (Table 7) which certainly indicated that acidity
promoted pitting.
Taking those two points together, it was perhaps surprising-at least at first glance-that the synthetic oil did
not give noticeably better anti-pitting results than the
mineral oil in the bus chassis and in service (see Fig. 15a
and b). However, unless the mineral oil deteriorated to
around 73 mg. KOH/g acidity, no difference would be
expected. But, on the other hand, if the mineral oil
deteriorated to such high acidities, the viscosity would
increase appreciably (see Fig. 17) and the higher viscosity
would give an appreciable anti-pitting effect which would
broadly cancel out the pro-pitting effect due to the presence
of acid. Of course, high viscosity led to higher fiiction
results under ordinary loading conditions, but he was
considering purely pitting.
The negligible effect on pitting was confirmed by the
disc machine results on the two oils (Table 8). Those
resdts also indicated that that synthetic oil gave nearly
twice the wear given by the mineral oil. It would be interesting to know whether that high wear rate had shown up in
service tests.
Mr J. L. Milligan, B.Sc.(Eng.) (Member), said that in

1913 Lanchester* had described a machine invented by
himself which had been built and used at the Daimler
works in 1912, by which it had been possible to obtain a
great accuracy in the measurement of the efficiency. In the
Daimler machhe the gearbox had been mounted on double
gymbals and the power input and output had been taken by
double universal jointed shafts. For any given conditions
of running it was found that there was a neutral axis about
which the torque was zero. That was at right augles to the
plane of the resultant torque, and was determined by a
sliding jockey knife edge. That knife edge, and the centre
of the double gymbal mounting, defined the line of zero
torque, and when the system was in equilibrium the position
gave the torque reading required. The relation of that
reading to that given by the gear ratio was a direct measure
of the efficiency.
The tests had been primarily concerned with efficiency
under loads. It had been known previously that efficiencies
at low speeds had been low, and tests confirmed that. Mr
Milligan had himself carried out the tests described in that
PaperLubrication had been the first test to see what gave the
best results, irrespective of its suitability otherwise. Three
* LANCHESTER,
F. W. 1912-13 Proe. Instn Auto. Engrs, vol. 7,
p. 215, 'Worm Gear'.
Prat Instn Mech Etlgts (A.D.)
mineral oils had been tried: Bayonne, which was a straight

mineral oil; a thick compound gear oil; and a popular
engine oil. Three animal or vegetable oils had also been
tried: sperm, lard and castor-the latter then coming into
use for motor-cycle engines. All the non-mineral oils had
been above the mineral ones at all loads and temperatures
to 100C.
It had been decided to run on lard oil of the ordinary
capstan lathe type as that gave high efficiency right up to
about 120"C, though he could not remember all the
temperatures 48 years later !
Efficiency was not the sole quality required of a lubricant
in a vehicle axle. The lubricant must not creep or leak readily
past seals. It must not oxidize, fioth or a c i m . It must not
freeze too thickly so that it was dangerous in starting in
very cold weather. It must not have chemical or electrical
effects on the metals.
The three mineral oils showed critical points where the
efficiency fell sharply at certain temperatures. As far as he
remembered, those temperatures had been between 35"40C and the change had been rather sudden. That sudden
fall was bad because if the working temperature was 33C
and a slight overload came, the temperature would rise to
a point where, if the overload ceased, the heat input was
still higher than the normal, and a higher working temperature would result on the old load.
A time-temperature test had shown irregularities and did
not conform to the curve complying with Newton's law of
cooling. A test of oil heated by an immersion heater showed
the same sort of m e . It had been plotted on an anti-log
grating, which was very useful in all cases of heating,
cooling, output from tanks or electric condensers (Figs. 20
and 21). On that grating the distance between two consecutive ordinates was proportional to their distance from
the datum, and Newton's law was a straight line, the datum
being infinity. The plotting showed that there had been no
inaccuracy; there had been slopes and fits. The flats had
been the absorption of latent heat in melting the solid
constituents held in solution.
That was the function of the compounding of mineral
The grating for ordinates was set out from the right setting off
points at the anti-log of 1, i.e. 10 mm then 1.05,1.1,1.15, etc. and
backward. The plotting can start at any ordinate.
By Newton's law.
Animal oil.
Flats are where solids melt.
----
Fig. 20
No 3 196061
TIME
That was the same test plotted on rectangular co-ordinates as

normal.
By Newtons law.
---- Animal
oil.
Fig. 21
oils, and the secret of the tallow in the authors tests was
that it could keep the temperature down during slight
overloads. If a working temperature was used somewhere
below a flat and a sudden, temporary increase in load was
obtained, the latent heat of the melting fat would keep
the temperature, and therefore the heat loss, down to
a reasonable figure. When the temporary increase went, the
temperature would return to its old figure. The gear oil,
which had been what the company had been using in its
axles, actually had quite a considerable flat-somewhat
around 40. He did not know the melting point of tallow
and he did not know whether the author knew it, but it
would be useful to show where he got his static temperature.
The use of grease in certain types of bearing instead of
oil had long been known to have advantages, and that was
a probable cause of the fact that in the thick gear oil the
compounding gave a nice flat at about the temperature
where the straight oil fell away. The result of the tests had
shown that the gear oil had been possessed of qualities that
made it useful, though its efficiency had been lower than
that of other oils.
The machine had been used for a series of tests by the
National Physical Laboratory, whose report was an
appendix to Lanchesters paper. The oil in those tests had
been lard oil with the addition of small amounts of sperm
and castor, so that it had not been specifically anythhg. Its
viscosity, as found by the National Physical Laboratory, was
Redwood 250 at 30C, 88.5 at 60C, and 50.5 at 90C.
As sperm was as good as castor, and better than thick oil,
it was clear that viscosity, as such, was no guide to efficiency.
The three light coloured oils med had all been better than
the three darker ones, but that proved nothing. Owing to
the properties of lard and sperm oil in passing seals, it was
no use having higher efficiency if tight seals had to be used
causing higher friction.
Regarding materials, phosphor bronze seemed to have
held the field for wormwheels for as long as he could
remember. It was unstable, however, if it had a high tin
content, and it was difficult to cast blanks in that material
around 11 or 12 per cent of tin, even with a chill on the
outside. If the outside was chilled a higher tin content was
liable to result on the outside than on the inside. In fact,
Proc Insrn Mach E w s (A.D.)
135
on one test on that testing machine, under conditions of

heavy load, high speed and high temperature, the efficiency
rose slightly, instead of falling as would be expected, and
he had been afraid that the machine had gone wrong. But
on looking into the cover he discovered that the wormwheel
had been white. The tin-it was a high content tin, about
12 per cent-had sweated out of the casting and had
white-metalled the teeth, so that it had been giving a high
efficiency. That appeared a &reat discovery but it was not,
because shortly the heavy load had spun the white metal
out on to the point of the teeth. If that had not been scraped
off, it would have done what it could do and often did on a
bronze wormwheel under heavy loads, namely, spun itself
out on to the point of the teeth and jammed the root of the
worm and so increased the fiiction.
Since the days of the 1920s and 1930s he had had a long
experience of worm drive in buses with a rather lower
tin content in the worm than 12 per cent. Conditions had
been difficult. The powers had been nothing like they were
currently using but the wheel diameters had been a bit
better than they were at present. However, the thrust on
the worm was approximately equal to the weight of the
vehicle. That the wormwheel teeth would carry that
weight was something about which the founders and constructors could be proud.
Galvanic action in standing for a period with an acid oil
was not unknown, it left a line of pitting on the steel
worm that tore the bronze. The marks on the bronze were
visible but the marks on the worm were not easily
recognizable.
MI-F. J. Patman, B.Sc. (Stanford-le-Hope), said his

study of the data presented in the paper raised certain
questions on which .he would welcome the authors
comments.
The whole theme of the paper was oil temperature and
the effect of temperature on power loss, oil charge life and
axle life as governed by wear and pitting of the gears. It
was reported that under moderate and severe conditions
non-mineral oils gave lower temperatures than mineral oils
of equivalent viscosity, but no mention was made of the
temperature at which the oils had that equivalent viscosity,
and it would appear that the different viscosity temperature
relations of the diferent oils could have a marked effect
on the validity of some of the conclusions which had been
drawn.
Regarding Table 1, the author suggested that the lower
temperatures obtained with non-mineral oils had been
partially attributable to their lower viscosity and partially
to some other inherent property of the lubricant. Taking
a look at those data he had had to make certain assumptions
about ambient temperature and the viscosity temperature
curves for the mineral oils, but he had made estimates of
the viscosities of the oils at the equilibrium operating
temperature and he found that, under every condition of
operation shown in Table 1, the final viscosities of the
mineral oils and synthetic oil A were quite similar. If
No 3 1960-61
136
DISCUSSION
anything, the final viscosity of the mineral oils tended to

be somewhat higher than that of A. The equilibrium
viscosities varied between about 20 CS under heavy duty
conditions and 110 CSunder milder conditions. He might
mention that the equilibrium viscosities of the castor oilsynthetic blends had all been very much lower than those
of the mineral oils and of synthetic oil A.
If his calculations and assumptions were correct-and
it was on that point that he would particularly welcome
confirmation-it would appear to him that those results
indicated that the different temperatures obtained with
synthetic oil A against mineral oils were entirely dependent
on viscosity differences, and that non-mineral oils did not
show those other inherent advantages over mineral oils
of equivalent operating viscosity. Incidentally, mineral oils
would appear to be on that basis very much superior to the
castor oil-synthetic blend.
In regard to temperature rise under severe operating
conditions, looking at the data it would appear that even
straight mineral oil of SAE 90 viscosity was on the flat
portion of the curve in Fig. 5c, and although no tests were
reported on blends of mineral oils with e.p. additives, he
considered it highly probable that the use of suitable e.p.
additives could reduce the temperature rise shown by
mineral oils of SAE 90 and higher viscosity, possibly to
values approachingthose indicated for the non-mineral oils,
and it was also possible, he thought, that e.p. additives could
extend the flat portion of the curve down to somewhat lower
mineral oil viscosities.
He thought, therefore, that the overall performance of
synthetic oil A was almost entirely dependent on its high
viscosity index, and that it could be matched, probably at
considerably lower cost, by a mineral oil of equivalent
viscosity characteristics over the appropriate temperature
range, that oil probably containing suitable e.p. additives.
The data presented by an earlier speaker indicated that
suitable e.p. additives did exist, and that good field results
could be obtained with an SAE 90 hypoid gear oil which
more nearly matched the viscosity of synthetic oil A than
did the SAE 140 oils which were most commonly employed
in worm gear practice.
The factor principally affecting mineral oil life was
oxidation, which was dependent on operating temperature
and the proper choice of anti-oxidant additives. Oxidation
would be alleviated by temperature reductions resulting
from the use of more suitable viscosity characteristics and
by the use of the efficient combined e.p. and anti-oxidant
additives which early speakers had mentioned.
In regard to oxidation tests, it seemed to him that it was
perhaps rather inappropriate to employ viscosity increase
as a test criterion, as was done by the author in Fig. 19.
The viscosity reductions shown for synthetic oil A did not
necessarily indicate good oxidation resistance, but only
that the oxidation products had lower Viscosities, perhaps
due to mechanical shear or perhaps due to depolymerization
of the polyalkylene glycol under the thermal and the oxidation conditions applying in the test. It was probable that
similar balancing of Viscosity increase, due to oxidation, by
Proc Imtn Mcch Rngn (A.D.)
viscosity decrease, due to mechanicalshear or depolymerization of additives, was quite feasible with mineral based
lubricants.
He thought that the days of mineral oil based lubricants
were not over and that they could give performance at least
equivalent to synthetic oil A, and he would welcome the
authors comments on that suggestion.
Mr A. J. S . Baker (Associate Member) said there was

only one slight omission, namely, that the common or
garden mineral which had been used in the work leading
up to the synthetic oil-the SAE 140 mineral oil, for
example-were not more fully described. For the sake of
future generations it would be useful if that had been done,
since it was unlikely that in 48 years from the present
Mr Milligans feat of memory would be repeated. Paradoxically enough, currently if anyone wanted to find out a
little about the successful synthetic oil, that would probably
be far easier than determining exactly what had been the
mineral oils mentioned in the paper.
He would like to restrict his comment on the paper to
one point, namely, to the effect of oil acidity mentioned on
p. 125. He thought that when Mr Whittle had stated that
it seemed possible that a high oil acidity could increase the
pitting tendency of bronze, he had been referring to some
corrosive effect. In the course of the work leading up to a
standard method for the determining of neutralization value
by colour indicator titration, culminating in the ASTM
D.974, many data had been reviewed to try to establish
a relation between bearing corrosion and acid or base
numbers, but all those efforts had been unrewarded. There
had been no general relation whatever, and the American
Society for Testing Materials took the rather exceptional
course of inserting that conclusion in the D.974. It was
there, under paragraph 1 of the Scope, Item (b).
Following on that, he wondered whether the author had
conducted sufficient tests on different mineral oils and
blends of oils in addition to those quoted in Table 4, to
support the implication that the chemistry resulting in
high neutralization value generally promoted accelerated
pitting. In conducting the tests reported, he asked what
precautions had been taken to ensure that the accelerated
deterioration due to oxidation had been entirely parallel
with the ageing effect of an oil in service other than by
simply measuring its neutralization value.
He would confirm Mr Vailes remarks on the successful
operation of mixed fleets using a mild or a less active form
of e.p., which was quite suitable for hypoid and worm axles.
M r H. J. Watson, B.Sc. (Associate Member), said the
paper was a major contribution to the literature on wormgear lubrication. There were few points on which it was
possible to disagree, and most of the followingremarks were
based on additional experimental results obtained with the
synthetic oil A referred to in the paper. However, there was
one item on which he would like particularly to comment.
The author stated that oil temperature rise can be used
to compare efficiency of different oils . under the same
..
No 3 196061
operating conditions', and in Fig. 7 was illustrated a very

interesting result in so far that the frictional losses under
light load conditions depended essentially upon viscosity.
He was rather doubtful about that graph. Churning losses,
for instance, in gear units usually seemed to be proportional
to (viscosity)O'5 and they would be very difficult to measure
in a vehicle axle, but it was the friction temperature rise as
plotted which seemed to be doubtful. In Fig. 7 there were
three points for mineral oil and three points for non-mineral
Oil.
If a curve had been drawn through the three mineral oil

points, and another through the non-mineral oil points,
appreciably lower losses were shown by the latter. Such a
result tended to be consistent with expectations based on
coefficient of friction measurements made in a disc machine
and in Fig. 22 coefficient of friction values for a plain
mineral oil compared with the synthetic oil A over a range
of sliding velocities were shown. The synthetic oil was quite
appreciably lower in frictional loss than the mineral oil.
The surface stress factor between the discs had been
roughly about the same as that found in industrial wormgear units, and would not differ greatly from that on some
vehicle axle worm-gears under the mild conditions defined
in the paper.
Load carrying capacity under certain conditions could be
determined from disc machine tests and used for comparative purposes. In Fig. 23 a higher load-carrying capacity
for the synthetic oil than for the mineral reference oil used
was shown. Conditions for the tests had been chosen so
that results would be virtually independent of lubricant
viscosity, and although the plain mineral oil had been rather
more viscous at 110 CSat 60Ccompared with about 68 CS
for the synthetic oil, the effect of viscosity might be ignored.
137
15 000
"
ul
d
<
z
2
I0000
Moo
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
TEST No.
Materials of discs:
Sizes of discs:
Slide/roll ratios:
Sliding velocity:
En 30b (100 ton/inl).

4 in. and 2 in. diameter.
+0.833 and -5.0.
187 ft/min.
Fig. 23. Comparison of load-carrying properties of plain

m i w a l oil and synthetic oil A
LL
if 0.04
SLIDE/ROLL RATIO
47
48
+296
I-
v
v
Y
Y
w
u% 003 -
+ 1.51
I
PLAIN MINERAL OIL
8 00.02
02-
.-.-J
INPUT HORSEPOWER
SYNTHETIC O I L 'A'
200
300
400
500 6W
800
IWO
IMO
2000
25w
RUBBING SPEED--ft/min
Materials of discs :
Bronze (B.S. 1400-PB2), case-hardened

steel (En 34).
Bronze, 8 in., steel, 4 in. diameter.
Sizes of discs :
Slicle/roll ratios :
+2.96 and +1.51. Surface stress factor,
Sc = 600.
Oil bath temperature: 68"-74"C.
Oil viscosity at 60C: Plain mineral oil 110 cS; oil 'A' 68 cS.
Fig. 22. Coeficient of fiction curves obtained from disc

machine to compare plain mineral oil with synthetic
lubricant under the same conditions
Proc I n m Mech E w s (A.D.)
Gear ratio: 6.15/1.

Plain mineral oil.
------- Synthetic oil A.
Fig. 24. Temperature-rise tests on 8 in. centres. Rearaxle worm-gears at low speeds with l
m power
The somewhat higher load carrying capacity of the synthetic oil was a useful property which might tend to
compensate for its lower viscosity when that was important.
Results from a series of tests on industrial gear units
were shown in Table 15. Those gave the input and output
horsepower values required to produce 55F temperature
No 3 1960-61
DISCUSSION
138
rise over a range of speeds. Units lubricated with the

synthetic oil carried more load in every case and also had a
higher overall efficiency.
Comparative results from rear-axle worm-gears in a
laboratory test were shown in Fig. 24 and indicated that for
constant speed conditions, but with increasing torque, the
temperature rise obtained with the synthetic oil was
appreciably lower than that obtained when a mineral oil
had been the lubricant. That had been an SAE 140 oil, but
at the speeds used the churning losses had been small.
It might reasonably be concluded from the authors
paper, and from the additional confirmatory experimental
evidence, that that synthetic oil was a useful worm-gear
lubricant.
Mr R. D. Guminski, B.Sc. (Banbury), said he would

like to ask two questions.
It had been shown that the superiority of synthetic oils
was particularly evident under very severe conditions; i.e.
when the hydrodynamic lubrication no longer operated but
was replaced by the boundary lubrication. He wondered
whether the author could give his views on the mechanism
by which the new lubricants provided such a good boundary
lubrication, and also whether he could correlate that
mechanism with their chemical and physical characteristics.
Secondly, he asked whether the author would describe
the technique he used for correlating the Z N / P parameter
with power losses? In particular, what were the loads he
applied in his experiment ?
Table 15. Horsepower and overall efi&ncy values from tests on industrial wmm-gear units for 55C temperature rise when
lubricated with plain and synthetic lubricants
centre
disfance,
m.
2
2
4
4c
4
4
5
5
7
7
8
8
Input hp for worm speed

(rev/min> of:
Output hp for worm speed

(rev/&) of:
750
loo0
1500
750
0.48
0-59
3.2
3.9
2.1
2.8
9.6
11.0
9.7
14.0
7.1
10.2
0.55
0.74
3.9
5.0
2.5
3.4
11-5
14.5
12.3
20.0
9.2
13.1
0.70
0.95
4.9
6.6
3.1
4.5
14.3
18.7
16.0
24.0
12.5
18.0
0.31
0.41
2.8
3.0
1.4
2.0
8.7
10.1
7.9
12.3
5.5
8.6
lo00
0.37
Overall efficiency for worm speed

(revlmin) of:
1500
0.48
750
0.65
looO
0.67
1500
0.69
Lubricant
fie
Synthetlc
Mineral
17.8
5.4
2.2
3.5
13.3
17.8
13.3
21.0
7.2
9-8
0.78
0.66
0.73
0.91
0.92
0.82
0.88
0-77
11.4
15.5
0-84
4.0
1 -7
2.6
10.6
13.6
10.1
0.80
0.68
0.75
0.92
0.94
0.82
0.88
0.78
0.87
0.82
0.70
0.78
0.93
0.95
0.83
0.88
0.79
0.86
Synthetic
Mineral
Synthetic
Mineral
Synthetic
Mind
Synthetic
Mineral
synthetic
Communications
Mr A.J. S. Baker (Associate Member) wrote that following
his discussions with friends and associates in the United
States, he would like to draw the authors attention to the
following points.
After reading the authors introduction, which set out
requirements to be met only by a synthetic lubricant, he
felt that his title was somewhat broader than the actual
aims of the paper.
The author had stated that the decline in popularity of
the worm rear axle was due, among other things, to maintenance problems arising from wear and pitting. While he
agreed that worm-axles were more expensive initially than
hypoid, the worm-axle would usually outlast the hypoid
because the wormwheel could be reversed for added life.
In the United States, a million miles of service had proved
to be not unusual for worm axles using the authors
maligned mineral oils.
The author failed to point out that one of the major
Proc Imtn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
limitations in using worm gears for higher powers was that

imposed by the strength of the bronze wheel which could
be physically fitted into a given size of casing. The automotive axle casing had several important mechanical duties
to perform, apart from those required of a static gearbox.
The ability of a box to resist distortion from outside forces
decreased rapidly with the size of box if the scantlings were
not made disproportionately heavy.
In Fig. 1, p. 120, he noted that the axles used to obtain
the data plotted had been watercooled. He questioned
whether the information contained in that figure was
strictly relevant as a means of comparing oils destined for
normal service or drawing the implied conclusions regarding heat dissipation. Surely, the temperature gradient in the
oil, between the gears and casing, would be steeper with
watercooling than with normal radiation and aircooling?
That meant that a comparatively static layer of cooled oil
would be formed immediately inside the casing, which
No 3 1960-61
would tend to insulate the fast moving oil in the immediate

vicinity of the gears. Such an effect would clearly be much
more marked with a high viscosity oil than one with a lower
viscosity. It would be interesting to see comparative
temperature surveys throughout the author's test-bed axle,
for high-viscosity and low-viscosity oils.
In Table 1 comparisons were drawn between inhibited
synthetic oil and uninhibited mineral oils. He wondered
whether that was a fair comparison. Surely the author could
have found some inhibited mineral oils to make a more
valid comparison ?
In Table 2 the author indicated that the effect of fatty
material on pitting might be masked by the viscosity of the
lubricant. Table 5, however, showed so much overlap for
different oils as to indicate that the results shown in
Table 2 were meaningless as a general indication. He
wondered whether the author would care to justify his
presentation on Table 2 in the face of his other results in
Table 5 ?
He asked whether the author was satisfied that his own
results in Table 8 were sufficiently numerous to indicate
that pitting tendencies of both oils had been demonstrated
with reasonable certainty? It seemed the wide scatter
obtained on the three oils reported, would justify further
tests to obtain a statistically sound relation for that allimportant aspect. That was all the more vital since the whole
format of the paper seemed bent on attempting to prove the
overall superiority of synthetic oils. The results as they
stood clearly indicated that pitting was less of a possibility
with the mineral oils. Furthermore, as he interpreted the
results on p. 127 of the road tests by the author, they showed
no sigdicant benefit in respect of pitting and wear for
synthetic oil A over SAE 140 mineral oil.
Polyglycols (the author's synthetic oils) had been recognized for some time as potentially good steel on bronze
lubricants. In addition their inherent stability and high
viscosity index made them eminently suitable candidates
for the lubrication of automotive worms in fleet service.
However, the fleet operator was mainly interested in overall
expenditure and the paper failed to show how the introduction of those synthetics could be justified economically.
Moreover, certain fleet operators were known to run for
periods of between 50 000 and 100 000 miles between drains
using mineral oils.
Far from the demise of mineral oils being within sight,
recent tests with specially compounded film strength
additives, blended in good quality petroleum base stocks,
had proved most encouraging. The addition of suitable
metal de-activators to minimize the catalytic effect of
bronze wear debris had also been studied with considerable
success.
Mineral oils containing both those types of additives
showed 100F or more lower bulk oil temperatures than
straight mineral oils in laboratory dynamometer tests. That
compared favourably with castor oil but eliminated the
relatively rapid breakdown of castor, which ultimately
caused gear failures with that oil. In field trials, a 30"-50"F
improvement in operating temperature had been obtained
Proc Instn Mech Engrr
(A.D.)
I39
over normal mineral oils, while the metal de-activators

showed that at least a 30 per cent increase in lubricant life
could be expected at equal operating temperatures.
Although the author had covered a very large section of
work, he was surprised to see that he had ignored the period
of intense interest which occurred in the United States in
the period around 1936 when the improvement of worm
axles and their lubricants had been under intensive review.
The author's generalized conclusions could not be
adequately supported by the experimental data he had
reported, in particular the number of formulations mentioned was insufficient to draw general conclusions.
Professor H. Blok (Delft, Holland) wrote that on the
basis of logical reasoning, supplemented by dimensional
analysis, it would appear that there might well be a lack of
generality in the form in which the experimental data had
been cast in Figs. 8 and 9. There would have been no doubt
about the generality if both the power loss and the parameter ZN/P had been replaced by dimensionless products,
and if the degree of correlation then obtained had been
about as satisfactory as that apparent from the present
figures. Admittedly, the fact that the parameter ZN/P, in
which P denoted the wormshaft torque, was not dimensionless, was of no serious concern. For that parameter was
proportional to the dimensionless product ZN/p, where p
denoted a pressure representative of the wormshaft torque,
P. Further, one single worm-gear transmission being under
consideration, the proportionality factor would be a constant throughout.
Accordingly, Figs. 8 and 9 would have to be amended
further by replacing the power loss, as the ordinate, by some
dimensionless product such as the characteristic coefficient of friction, f (note that in the amended Fig. 8,
f would include the churning losses and in the amended
Fig. 9 it would not).
In view of the lack of generality inherent in the plotting
of power loss, instead off, or a similar dimensionless product, it was surprising that so good a degree of correlation
or say, so little scatter, had been achieved through the way
of plotting adopted by the author in Figs. 8 and 9. However,
an explanation for that remarkable fact could readily be
found, if the power transmitted, P,, would have been kept
constant in all of the tests of which the results were depicted
in the figures concerned. In that event the power loss as
plotted would have been proportional to the coefficient of
friction, f, so that in the present tests no loss of generality
would be involved. If in his reply the author should state
that the power transmitted was not constant in those tests,
another explanation would have to be found.
In that connection it was noteworthy that the degree of
correlation achieved in Fig. 8 was about as good as that in
Fig. 9. Since, at equal ZN/P-values, the difference in the
power losses plotted in those figures was identical with the
churning loss at the chosen ZN/P-value, that meant that
in the current tests the latter loss, there denoted by Pch,was
a function solely of ZN/P. That could be explained a3
NO 3 1960-61
COMMUNICATIONS
140
follows if, again, it should prove that the power transmitted

would have been kept constant in a l l those tests.
Combining the finding, in Fig. 1, of a proportionality
between temperature rise and power loss with that, in
Fig. 7, of a proportionality between churning temperature
rise and oil viscosity, 2,at operating temperature, it might
be postulated that, churning loss, Pch,must have been proportional to viscosity, 2. That: meant that, throughout the
operational range covered, churning loss must have borne
an essentially viscous character and that, for instance, inertia
effects in the oil flow causing the churning losses must have
been so slight as to be negligible. Under such flow conditions it could readily be demonstrated through dimensional analysis that churning losses, Pch,might be represented by the following formula:
Pch= C1.ZN*L3
. . . (1)
where C1 denoted a numerical factor, i.e. characteristic of
the geometry of the worm-gear transmission and of its oil
bath, and where L stood for some suitable linear dimension
(such as the pitch diameter of the worm) characterizing the
size of the worm-gear transmission concerned.
The above formula might be rewritten as follows:
Pch = C,.(ZN/P).P,
. (2)
so that, if it should prove that the power transmitted, P,,
was indeed constant throughout the present tests, it could
just as well be written:
Pch=C3.ZN/P
. .
(3)
where C,, like C2, was still a constant, although it was no
longer a numerical factor, since it contained, apart from
constant form factors and the constant power P,, the
characteristic linear dimension L.
According to formula (3), churning loss, Pch, would
indeed be a unique function, and a very simple one to that,
of ZNIP. Unfortunately, the accuracy achievable in
determining churning loss, as a function of ZNIP, by subtracting values in Fig. 8 from corresponding ones in Fig. 9,
did not permit verifying whether the functional relation
between those concerned was as simple as the proportionality described by formula (3). He wondered whether
the author, who was in a better position to carry out such a
verification, could state to what extent he found formula (3)
corroborated by his original test results ?
Finally, the author pointed out that the gain in friction
losses achieved by the non-mineral oils, in comparison with
the mineral ones and as shown in Fig. 9, might perhaps be
attributed to a difference in the pressure dependence of
viscosity between those two groups of oils. However, since
that gain was greatest in the ZNIP-range to the left of the
minima of the two curves concerned, i.e. in the range
where lubrication was presumably only partially hydrodynamic so that part of the tooth load must have been borne
by direct contact between the meshing tooth faces, it
remained to be seen whether a difference between the
boundary lubricating properties might not perhaps have
played an even more significant part. Particularly if the
results shown for the non-mineral oils should relate mainly,
. .
Proc Inrrn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
if not exclusively, to the synthetic oil A, it was noteworthy

that the lower curve in Fig. 9 showed a trend, i.e. remarkably
similar to that found by Ohlendorf* with another synthetic
(polyether) oil in his friction tests on straight spur gears.
Judging from a recent analysist of Ohlendorfs results,
with the latter oil, and in the range concerned, the boundary
lubricating properties might well have played a significant
part, not only in his, but also in the present experiments.
hlr E. M. Evans (Graduate) and Mr R. M. Dupont

(Chester), wrote that since the author had completed his
paper, further tests had been carried out on synthetic oil A
and an inhibited SAE 140 mineral oil at very high torque
and low speed, on the vehicle fitted with a 64-in. centreworm rear axle. Those tests had been accomplished by
using the test vehicle to tow the large M.I.R.A. trailer
dynamometer. The tests had been carried out at two test
conditions, maximum torque in first gear, i.e. a worm-wheel
torque of 7610 Ib.ft at 3 mile/h, and at maximum torque in
second gear, i.e. a wormwheel torque of 4400 1b.ft at
4.8 mile/h. A new worm and wheel were used at each test
condition. The oil temperature in the rear axle had been
measured at regular intervals and the test terminated when
the oil temperature reached 150C.
Examination of the gears, after the initial test at maximum
torque in first gear, showed that a 0.010-in. wear step had
formed at the entry side of the wormwheel after a distance
of 1 mile. At those conditions, deflection had destroyed the
oil wedge at the entry side of the wormwheel. Afrer the
initial test at maximum torque in second gear, wear again
occurred at the entry side of the tooth.
At both test conditions it had been necessary to double
the amount of gear offset recommended by the vehicle
manufacturer to obtain a satisfactory oil wedge.
In Fig. 25a the oil temperature plotted against distance
travelled by the vehicle during tests at maximum torque in
first gear was shown. It would be seen that there was a
significant reduction in oil temperature after the axle adjustment. Those curves also showed that synthetic oil A gave
considerably lower oil temperatures than an inhibited
SAE 140 mineral oil.
In Fig. 2% the oil temperature plotted against distance
travelled at maximum torque in second gear was shown.
The axle adjustment had given a greater temperature
reduction than that given in first gear. At that condition
synthetic oil A again gave much lower oil temperatures than
the inhibited SAE 140 mineral oil.
OHLENDORF,
H. 1958 Verlustleistung und Erwlrmung von
Stimradem;doctoral thesis, University of Technology, Munich.
For an abstract see: NIEMANN,G. and OHLENDORF,
H. 1960
2. Ver. dtsch. Zng., vol. 102, p. 216, Verlustleistung und
Erwarmung von Stirnradgetrieben.
BLOK,H. 1960 Hydrodynamic Effects on Friction in Rolling
with Slippage, paper read at Symposium on Rolling Contact
Phenomena, General Motors Corporation, Research Laboratories, Warren (Michigan), U.S.A., October 10-11 (the proceedings will be published by Elsevier Publishing Co.,
Amsterdam, Holland).
NO 3
1960-61
I40
I20
IN
UI
E
3
n.
E
l-
$ 6 0
DISTANCE-miles
a Road speed 3 mile/h.

Wormwheel torque 7610 1b.ft.
DISTANCE-miles
b Road speed 4.8 mile/h.

Wormwheel torque 4400 1b.ft.
Fig. 25. Increase in axle oil temperature with distance

travelled by the test vehicle
Those tests had shown that, under conditions of continuous heavy loading, an allowance must be made for
deflection if wear was to be avoided. Failure to make such
an allowance could lead to excessive wear of the wormwheel
and might also cause a premature failure by pitting of the
steel worms due to decarbonization of the case at the high
temperatures of the worm.
Mr G. K. Martlew (Member) wrote that the use of worm

axles in medium and heavy commercial vehicles had been
almost universal for many years. On some single driving
axle trucks they had been displaced about 10-12 years ago
by hypoid drives. A major factor behind that change had
Proc Znstn Mech Engrs (A.D.)
141
been the numerous wormwheel failures which occurred

owing to long periods of slow speed and high torque. Those
conditions occurred with heavily loaded vehicles on long
steep gradients and some of those hills had subsequently
been used as test courses for the development of worm-axle
lubricants. One of the features in favour of hypoid drives
had been the fact that they had been satisfactory under the
very conditions which caused distress to a worm axle, i.e.
slow speed and high torque. More recently, spiral-bevel
axles had been favoured for medium-size trucks. In that
connection, it had been claimed that of the three types of
drives mentioned, the worm had the lowest efficiency and
the spiral bevel had the highest. The latter was an important
consideration where fuel economy was a major requirement.
Vehicles with two driving rear axles had, until comparatively recently, tended to retain the worm drive in view of
the simplicity with which a straight through drive for the
rearmost axle can be provided.
In those c(rcumstances it was felt that the worm axle was
unlikely to regain favour for medium capacity single
driving axle trucks. However, any advance in lubrication
which would improve worm-axle performance in its many
other vehicle applications had much to commend it.
Turning to the authors introductory paragraph, he
commented favourably on the large reduction which a worm
drive could give in a single stage. From later data, it
appeared that most of the tests had been made in axles
having a reduction ratio of about 6%to 1. That ratio was being
satisfactorily produced in a single-reduction spiral-bevel
unit. He would like the author to comment on what he considered to be the major advantages of worm axles incorporating a reduction ratio of that order. He wondered
whether the author would also state comparative efficiency
figures for the three different types of drive mentioned.
It was noted that of the four types of axle conditions
described, little work had been done on the very severe
case. That seemed surprising because that type of condition could in fact last for several minutes on long gradients
in Britain and for much longer periods overseas. One or two
instances had occurred when a very heavy haul had been
operated at below 5 mile/h continuously for over half-anhour.
Referring to Figs. 2 and 5, he wondered whether the
author would indicate the range of viscosities and temperatures as had been done in Fig. 7.
Turning to Table 1, the temperatures appeared to be on
the low side and that might have affected the results. It was
felt that the slow-speed high-torque conditions with the
corresponding increased temperatures were the critical
state by which the performance of a worm-axle lubricant
should largely be judged. The authors comments on that
and on the relative importance of other aspects of axle
lubricants would be welcome. In that connection would he
also please indicate in what manner very heavy commercial
vehicle conditions might modify his general conclusions.
The results shown in Fig. 7 appeared to be rather
scattered. There might be some indication from the points
shown that at the higher viscosities there was an upward
No 3 1960-61
I42
COMMUNICATIONS
trend in churning losses and a downward trend in friction

temperature rise. It might be that under those conditions
churning losses represented a larger proportion of the total
power loss.
The wear and pitting tests appeared to have given rather
inconclusive results and that might have been associated
with the moderate temperatures under which they had been
carried out. He wondered whether the author would anticipate that synthetic oil A would show up to more advantage
under higher temperature conditions.
He would also like to ask the author to elaborate on the
first paragraph on p. 129which dealt with statisticalanalysis.
On the face of it, the extent of errors involved in the field
oxidation trials must have been very large.
Proc Instn Mech Engrr (A.D.)
Mr A. D. Newman, B.Sc. (Associate Member), wrote

that the author did not say anything about the effect of his
synthetic lubricant on the bearings and seals in automotive
worm-gears, and he would welcome his comments on
that.
From the section on the effect of e.p. additives, he thought
that an incorrect general inference could be made. The
author stated that there was conclusive evidence of much
greater proneness to pitting with the discs lubricated with
an active e.p. oil than when a straight mineral oil had been
used. He should emphasize that the evidence applied to a
bronze-steel combination of materials, and was a result to
be expected. It did not happen, as a generalization, with
steel-steel combinations of discs.
No 3 196061
Authors Reply
Mr J. Whittle wrote that in reply to the discussion and
communications he was very grateful to the contributors
who had shown such detailed interest in the paper. It was
interesting to note that comments had been received from
manufacturers of worm gears and from users as well as from
other parts of the petroleum industry, but he would like to
have heard more from the vehicle users side.
Several contributors seemed to have thought that he was
trying to push a new product and if that was the impression
the paper gave then he was sorry. It had been his aim to
fill an apparent gap in the literature of lubrication. The
number of articles dealing with worm-gear lubrication were
few and far between as could be judged fiom the references.
He had also found in his conversations with users and
others that there appeared to be a number of misconceptions about the mechanism of lubrication and the explanations of power loss in axles and this was one of the reasons
so much of the paper had been devoted to friction and power
loss.
It was worth while to get the problems into perspective
and Mr Wilford had presented an interesting picture of
axle lubrication over the years as seen by the London Transport Executive (L.T.E.). The information about the current
results in L.T.E. axles was of great interest j it appeared that
in general terms the oxidation inhibited castor oil has about
half the life of inhibited mineral oil and the synthetic oil
lasted about twice as long as the inhibited mineral oil. That
was interesting confirmation of the laboratory simulation
oxidation tests, despite the admittedly high test temperature
of 150Cwhich hh Vaile had commented on. Unfortunately
it was a fact of life that oxidation tests had frequently to be
carried out at higher temperatures than normal in order
to get quick results. The temperature of 150C had not been
chosen lightly, but it was a result of good correlation with
results at lower temperatures with the particular oils and
antioxidants used. It was, of course, well known that certain
antioxidants themselves were unstable at this temperature
and that was what Mr Vaile might have had in mind in
criticizing the test temperature.
He was glad that Mr Patman had raised the question of
the criterion to be used in assessing the life of a synthetic
oil. It was obvious from the results that viscosity increase
was not the correct one to use in service and in fact acidity
was a much better guide to the condition of the oil. Users
should make particular note of this.
There had been a number of questions concerning the
pitting and wear tests on the disc machine, in particular with
regard to the effect of oil acidity. The mineral oils tested
had come fiom a limited number of sources but notwithstanding the source it seems reasonable to assume that the
Proc Instn Mech Eizgrs ( A . D . )
acidic decomposition products will be similar although they

may be present in different proportions. In reply to Mr
Baker it was stated in the text that the results reported in
Figs. 6 and 7 had been obtained on used oils removed from
buses in service (the oils had been centrifuged to remove
bronze wear particles), and the reference oil had been
blended to the same viscosity with oils of the same type. In
that way it had been ensured that the results had been as
comparative as they could be made. It should be borne in
mind that the pitting and wear tests on the synthetic and
mineral oils were made at the same temperature although
in service it was his contention that the synthetic oil would
run at an appreciably lower temperature and that should
tend to reduce pitting and wear. In comparative service
tests there had been no significant difference of pitting and
wear between the synthetic oil and SAE 140 mineral oils
and it had been useful to have Mr Wilfords comments on
that. One possible explanation of the slight anomaly which
Mr Tourret had pointed out was that shock loading, during
gear changing, etc. might have a greater influence on pitting
than steady load and it might be expected that the less
viscous oil would give less shock absorption than a more
viscous oil.
The contribution by Mr Evans and h4r Dupont was
useful in indicating that mechanical assembly of the gears
could be very important in influencing their life and the
running temperature of the oil. In that connection it should
be observed that the worm gear was, in general, much m x e
tolerant of errors in assembly than spiral bevel and, particularly, hypoid gears. Mr Martlew had quoted a generalization about the efficiencies of worm gears and spiral bevels.
However, it was quite untrue to say that one was more
efficient than the other; it depended on the conditions. One
of the important variables was the lubricant and it had been
one of the aims of the paper to demonstrate how worm axle
efficiency depended upon lubricant. The acid test was, of
course, to compare the efficiencies of the two types of axle
with the same ratio under realistic conditions. Since the
paper had been written such tests had been carried out in
conjunction with a heavy goods vehicle manufacturer.
Unfortunately he was not at liberty to reveal the detailed
results but one of the conclusions was that the use of a
worm gear lubricated with synthetic oil A resulted in fuel
consumption figures at least as good and sometimes better
than when using a spiral bevel lubricated with an SAE 90
mineral base oil. That had happened despite the fact that
the spiral bevel ran somewhat cooler than the worm
gear.
Mr Milligans contribution had been most interesting
and Dr Lanchesters paper of 1913 was of great value also.
No 3 1 9 6 N 1
144
AUTHORS REPLY
The explanation of the possible mechanism by which compounded (i.e. fat containing) oils work was intriguing.
However, if the fatty material had really gone into solution
then there should be no step in the cooling curve at the
melting point of the fat. If a step was present that indicated
that M Milligan had not got a true solution. The possibility
was that there had been a saturated solution and excess fat
had been present, perhaps in a finely divided form. Alternatively a colloid suspension might be expected to exhibit
similar behaviour. It was, of course, present practice to
make compounded oils in such a way that they were bright,
i.e. free from solid particles, to temperatures below normal
ambient.
It would be interesting to know Mr Bakers motives in
making tests on improved mineral based oils when his
experience seemed to be with axles lasting a million miles
and oil changes after 100000 miles! Obviously that was
one side of the picture but the other side was that for automotive drives the worm gear was rapidly losing favour in
the United Kingdom. In the United States of America
it had practically disappeared, except in moumtinous
regions, despite the intense pre-war studies which Mr Baker
had mentioned.
Mr Baker and Mr Vaile had both referred to metal deactivators and although it was easy to show that they could
have a beneficial effect in static oxidation tests where there
was a limited quantity of solid copper catalyst, it was not so
m
a
n
i that they gave the same benefit in an axle in service
where fresh metal surface was being continually produced,
and where some of the metal was also going into solution.
Simple calculations showed that unless a good percentage
of deactivator was added it was all liable to be rapidly
mopped up by the copper and iron particles and salts.
The remarks about pitting weremade in the context of the
paper and as IvIr Newman stated e.p. materials did not
necessarily accentuate pitting in steel-steel combinations.
Synthetic lubricants did not appear to have any appreciable
effect on roller bearings and they were extremely compatible
with synthetic rubber seals. Some care was necessary in
choosing suitable leather seals but that was no trouble once
the point was appreciated.
Most of the comments on the paper had been concerned
with temperature rise and power loss and in particular the
effect of e.p. agents. Mr Patman had carried out some calculations on the data in Table l and arrived at some conclusions regarding the effect of oil viscosity on temperature
rise. To try to clear up the point the original results, from
which selected data had been given in line 4 of Table 1,
were shown in Fig. 26. It would be seen that comparing the
two types of oils, i.e. the particular non-mineral oils against
the particular mineral oils used, there could be no doubt
that an equi-viscous mineral oil gave higher oil temperatures and power losses. The trend shown in those results
was supported by other results at numerous conditions both
higher and lower in speed and torque although, of course,
the magnitude of the difference varied from condition to
condition. In fact, as discussed in the paper, at high torque
conditions the thin mineral oils f d e d miserably but thin
Proc Ztrstn Mech Engrr (A.D.)
63
r
CASTOR1
SYNTHETIC
SYNTHETIC
: I l l
0
20 40
60
120
160
200
VISCOSITY OF OIL AT OPERATING TEMPERATURE
CS
x
2
240
Mineraloils.
Non-mineral oils.
Fig. 26. Variation of oil temperature and power loss with

oil viswsity and type. 14 mile per hour condition
castor/syntheticblends gave low stable temperatures. Figs. 2
and 7 were intended to be generalized curves and consequently the scale of the temperature ordinate depended on
numerous axle design and external cooling conditions.
It was unfortunate that the protagonists of e.p. oils had
not produced more specific results to back up their claims
but there did appear to be a strong body of opinion supporting mild e.p. oils and, of course, e.p. oils had been used
in worm gears for numerous years with varying degrees of
success. However, the problem remained that the e.p. agent
had to be active enough to produce an e.p. film on the steel
or bronze but not sufficiently active to attack the bronze.
Bearing in mind the wide range of bulk oil temperatures
existing in worm gears that wasobviously a tricky balance
to strike. For heavily loaded axles it was his opinion that
e.p. materials could be a mixed blessing.
Regarding the choice of viscosity level which was raised
by Mr Vaile in relation to mineral oils and by Mr Bravey
in relation to synthetic oils the short answer had been that
it all depends. Below S A E 90, there was no doubt that
with mineral oils severe wear could occur at high torque
conditions so that this represented a minimum viscosity.
At the other end of the scale S A E 250 mineral oils could be
very effective in lowering running temperatures under
sustained high torque conditions but under more normal
conditions they could give excessive power loss due to
churning of the oil. Consequently the choice of lubricant
viscosity depended upon the type of operation for which it
was intended. The same is true for synthetics although the
differences might not be quite so marked. However, if one
lubricant appeared to give excessiveleakage through seals or
permit tooth damage by shock loading it would obviously be
advantageous to go to a more viscous fluid. With synthetics
it would appear that that could be done without an excessive
penalty in the way of increased power loss.
No 3 196061
The independent results obtained by Mr Wilford (on

fuel consumption) and Mr Watson (on friction) were much
appreciated and in general support the authors results.
Some years earlier results had been reported* by C.A.V.
and L.T.E. of the fuel used at various combinations of
rack setting and engine speed under typical bus operating
conditions. From those results its appeared that about
70 per cent of the fuel was consumed at or near full rack
conditions (settings 7 and 8), that was, nearly maximum
torque from the engine. Close inspection of the traces
obtained from the city route bus indicated that the percentage of the fuel consumed in each of the gears at the rack
settings of 7 and 8 was: 1st gear 20 per cent, 2nd 25 per
cent, 3rd 25 per cent and top gear 30 per cent. Thus something like 70 per cent x (20+25 per cent) = 32 per cent of
the fie1 consumption of a bus was under conditions (1st
and 2nd gear) which produced a high or very high torque
in the axle at low speed for a relatively short time. That
idormation combined with the knowledge of the frictional
characteristics of the oils suggested that it was under those
severe accelerating conditions when most improvement in
the fiction and hence most fuel saving would be produced
by the non-mineral type of oil.
Professor Blok had questioned the power loss ordinate
on the ZN/P curve and he was right in concluding that in
fact the input power had been kept constant. That was
mentioned in Table 1, where the input power was said to
be 35 hp but the connection between Table 1 and Figs. 8
and 9 was not obvious to the reader. Consequently the
vertical ordinate on Figs. 8 and 9 should really have been a
non-dimensional factor and inefficiency, i.e. power loss+
Operation of a London Bus Engine, Gus, Oil and Power,

October 1957, pp. 240-243.
Proc Instn Mech Engrs (A.D.
145
input power, would have been convenient. Nevertheless that

alteration did not affect the argument. The correction to
obtain the fiction power loss had been less solidly based.
From the data presented in Fig. 7 and other similar data
an approximation had been obtained and it had been assumed that the churning loss was proportional to Reynolds
number, i.e. churniug loss proportional to speed and
viscosity. Using that method all the corrections had been
smaller than the original churning loss measurements, so
that a small error in these measurements resulted in even
smaller errors at the other conditions. Professor Bloks and
Mr Watsons comments were usem in suggesting alternative treatments of the problem.
The non-mineral oils in the lower curves of Figs. 8 and 9
were castor oil, castor-synthetic oil, and synthetic oils A
and B. It was interesting to hear of Ohlendorfs results and
the suggestion that boundary lubrication might well have
played a significant part in both series of test. From other
tests under boundary conditions the synthetic oils did not
always show such good properties as, say, castor oil but in
answer to Mr Guminski it seemed probable that some polar
mechanism was acting although that aspect required much
further study. In using the factor ZN/P several approximations had been made. Firstly, as explained, the viscosity
used had been the bulk oil viscosity and not, as was more
strict, the viscosity in the contact where the pressure and
temperature were Merent. Secondly, instead of pressure,
which depended upon the He&
contact area, the simple
parameter of torque had been used. In view of those
simplifications there was nobody more surprised than himself at the degree of correlation that had appeared. That
suggested that the method might be used, with a fair
chance of success, in other applications.
No 3 1960-61

Lubrication of Automotive Worm Gear

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Lubrication of Automotive Worm Gear

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119

LUBRICATION OF AUTOMOTIVE WORM-GEARS

tial fleets of buses, trucks, and taxis fitted with worm-gear

(4) A viscosity-temperature relation as good as, or

This paper deals with several investigations which have

Walker (4) in an earlier paper to the Institution discussed

Fig. 1. Relation between oil temperature riSe and power

Performance of mineral oils

Fig. 2. Variation of oil temperature rise with oil viscosity

By compounding is implied the addition to mineral oil of

LUBRICATION OF AUTOMOTIVE WORM-GEARS

to confer lower frictional properties to mineral oils under

a Engine speed 2000 revlmin. Top gear. Full throttle.

Acidless tallow concentrations:

Fig. 4. Relation between oil temperature rise and viscosity,

b Engine speed 1200 revlmin. 2nd gear. Full throttle.

Fig. 3. Effect of viscosity and compounding upon axle-oil

are discussed in the following sections and the general trend

Fig.6. Typical viswsity against temperature

u Mild conditions. b Moderate conditions. c Severe conditions.

middle of the S A E 20 range, namely 7& CS at 210F. This

Fig. 5. Temperature rises of certain non-mineral oils

High-viscosity synthetic oil (Oil B)

LUBRICATION OF AUTOMOTIVE WORM-GEARS

Table 1. Tmperature rise data on synthetic oil A in worm-gear axles

SAE 140 mineral oil

Heavy-goods lorry Overslung

Worm speed 2020 rev/&

SAE 90 mineral oil

Heavy-goods lorry Overslung

Worm speed 1325 rev/&

SAE 90 mineral oil

SAE 90 mineral oil

Four square axle

Worm speed 884 rev/&

Worm speed 442 revlmin

Worm speed 275 revlmin

Speed 450 rev/&

Normal driving on hilly SAE14Omineraloil

Normal trunk haul driVina.

SAE 140 mineral oil

'hese are actual oil temperatures not rises above ambient.

Lean temperature rises over

Tro.lley-buses in normal service. Moderately hilly

SAE 140 mineral oil

verage temperature rises on

SAE 140 mineral oil

'ests on two buses. Lower

with the use of an S A E 140 mineral oil. It follows fiom this

with viscosity has been attributed to the effect of churning

VISCOSITY AT OPERATING TEMPERATURE-centistokes (cS)

Churning loss results.

Fig. 7. Comparison of churning loss (obtained by towing the

Fig. 9. Relation between friktion power loss in a worm

Fig. IO. Variation of viscosity at 100F with

LUBRICATION OF AUTOMOTIVE WORM-GEARS

Disc machine tests

More recent information on factors affecting wear and

The effect of fatty materials

Table 2. Effect of fat on pitting

SAE 140 mineral oil

Effect of extreme-pressure additives

Table 3. Test results

SAE 90 mineral oi1+9 per