We recently received this wonderful story from one of our customers, Creative Machines. They were tasked with a very impressive project by the Kohler Corporation in Kohler, WI. We absolutely love when we are able to help our customers, and we certainly love hearing feedback from all our customers.
Hi,
I had researched tungsten disulfide for its standalone lubrication characteristics for a while, thinking some of the claims were ‘snake-oil’. We finally got a new project where we needed something special that could work over a wide range of temperature and humidity. I decided we needed to try it in our own testing before using any on this new project.
I set up a test bed for sliding stainless steel on stainless steel, as well as stainless steel on the engineering plastic Tivar (high temp dry polymer bearing material). After months of running, I watched machined stainless repeatedly build up and transfer a thin dark nickel oxide onto the Tivar and start developing friction. All the time we were monitoring the motor drive current and surface temperature at the wear surface and periodically disassembling the test beds for physical inspection.
We were homing in on a decent combination, but being our new proposed project would need to operate in a range of -40 degrees F to 100 degrees F, dry, rain, snow or ice, this complicated the use of any standard lube specification. I ordered some of your NanoSlick T-60 Artic to try as well as some DT-100 dry tungsten disulfide for part burnishing. We found the part burnishing to be more tedious with less payback than using your T-60. All testing showed us that motor loading was substantially unloaded, and periodic inspection showed that the stainless was no longer transferring nickel, nor the plastic bearings establishing any wear patterns.
With these finding we altered the plastic bearing designs with the radial and thrust surfaces to have grease retention pockets as well as debris scrapers to wipe away any attempts of particulate intrusion. This design was utilized in the final product which was lubed at install in October of 2023. At my inspection in May of 2024, I found that the motor controller was running at another reduction in amperage as things had further lapped in, and the tungsten had burnished in further.
This project was made for the Kohler Corporation in Kohler, WI., and runs 24/7/365. It is loved by many, appreciated by all, and was a wonderful experience for all the staff at Creative Machines.
www.creativemachines.com/maverick-spirit
Thank you for making this great product available, I am ordering more, …just to have available!
David M. Davis, Technical Director
Creative Machines | 4141 East Irvington Road, Tucson, AZ 85714
phone: 520.294.0939 ext 121 | toll-free: 800.861.7937
www.creativemachines.com
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NanoSlick T-60 Arctic Sub-Zero Lubricant
Rated 4.82 out of 5$23.95 – $67.95 -
NanoSlick DT-100 Tungsten Disulfide Lubricant
Rated 4.94 out of 5$36.95 – $8,373.95