Motor Oil In A Vacuum
Motor Oil In A Vacuum
(OP)
We are creating some bushings out of sintered bronze bar stock. We need to impregnate the bushings with oil so they will be self lubricating. The general practice as I have read is to immersing the bushings in SAE 30 motor oil heated to 150-175 degrees Fahrenheit in a vacuum. This is supposed to result in a 90% saturation of the bearing material. Our company has a vacuum furnace we use for carbuzing, tempering and hardening of our bearing material. We have never attempted this before as we usually purchase the bushings complete. This is a special order and doesn't use a standard bushing so we are making them ourselves.
My concern is out gassing of ingredients from the motor oil contaminating our expensive vacuum furnace and costing us downtime for cleaning. Also it's a concern for putting this in a vacuum and heating it at all. The flash point on the oil is 400 degrees Fahrenheit. But I have concerns with it foaming or doing some other weird stuff while in the vacuum. Does anyone have any experience with this or maybe some insight on how I should proceed?
My concern is out gassing of ingredients from the motor oil contaminating our expensive vacuum furnace and costing us downtime for cleaning. Also it's a concern for putting this in a vacuum and heating it at all. The flash point on the oil is 400 degrees Fahrenheit. But I have concerns with it foaming or doing some other weird stuff while in the vacuum. Does anyone have any experience with this or maybe some insight on how I should proceed?





RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
You will end up with oil residue everywhere.
You can do this with a small vacuum pump, a bell jar, and a hot plate.
If this is high volume then build a small system. It doesn't need high vacuum and it does need to be easy to clean.
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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
Yes we looked at this but the material specification is a requirement from the customer for SAE 841 Sintered Bronze w/ ND SAE 30 motor oil impregnation. This customer will not alter on their specification as they are design responsible we are just manufacturing the item for them.
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
Luckily after discussing this with our purchasing department the material supplier had already sold us impregnated material, the material certification did not specify it was impregnated. the material item number did which was overlooked by myself and the other engineers. It's no longer an issue. The saturation is not as much as we would like but it will do for the order.
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
I beleive, I may be wrong, that the vacuum is to suck the air from the material and it takes a while maybe 24 hours for all the air that will ever come out, to come out. then when the vacuum is released the empty space where the air was inthe material is filled instantly with the oil it is immersed in. The oil being heated it to make thinner so it will get pbetter penetration in the material.
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube
RE: Motor Oil In A Vacuum
I believe the oil impregnation process is done using a vacuum.