Renewable Lubricants launches environmentally friendly product for wire rope

Image: Renewable Lubricants

Renewable Lubricants has launched Bio-E.P Wire Rope Lubricants — biodegradable vegetable oils formulated with antiwear, extreme pressure (E.P.), anti-rust, oxidation inhibitors and a tackifier.

They provide a light waxy-tacky coating and are recommended for lubricating multi-strand cables and wire rope wound around central cores of steel of fiber which are subject to heavy loading and or shock loading, like marine cables, crane cables, pulleys, and more, it said.

“These biobased products provide improved fire resistance over equal viscosity petroleum products, and contain no chlorine, zinc, or heavy metals, so they are safer for employees and the environment,” the company said in a press release.

“Performance is enhanced with the Stabilized HOBS’s natural vegetable oil composition, which provides an oily boundary film with a natural polarity to metal surfaces. This helps to clean and then penetrates deep into the inner core of the cable to prevent rust and wear. The super high viscosity index of the stabilized HOBS adds additional lubrication qualities.”

Laboratory and field tests have shown that the products provide protection with low temperature pumpability, it said. While it can be applied without heating, warming to 30° to 40°C (86° to 104°F) prior to use allows faster penetration into strands. Ideal for protecting steel cables, pulleys, sliding surfaces, threads, steel chains, slideways, and hinge pins against corrosion galling, and seizure, it is available in 1- and 5-gallon pails, drums, totes and in bulk from the factory in Hartville, Ohio.

Bio-E.P. can be applied by spray, brush, drip, or pressure boot. This water displacing, corrosion inhibiting waxy film is effective in protecting ferrous metals in salt and acid fume (hydrochloric acid) environments and against high humidity, the company said.

Bio-E.P. Gear Oils meet the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2013 Vessel General Permit (VGP) guidelines for Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants (EALs) and should be used where low toxicity, biodegradability, and non-bioaccumulation properties are required. In addition to being safer for the environment, they are safer for employees, according to Renewable Lubricants.

It also exceeds the acute toxicity (LC-50/EC-50{1000 ppm) criteria adopted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US EPA.