4 Ways Premium Lubricants Lower Heavy Equipment Costs and Improve Performance

Premium Lubricants

When it comes to maintaining your construction equipment, the lubricants you choose matter. If your dealer or OEM recommends premium lubricants, they may cost a bit more up front, but the benefits to your machines over time can actually lower your operating expenses.

When we talk about premium lubricants, we’re not necessarily just talking about synthetics. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the oils we use at Volvo aren’t synthetic. There are three primary grades of mineral base oils. We use the superior grades in a balanced formulation that takes best advantage of each of the properties. Purely synthetic oils are very good, but they’re often also very expensive.

At Volvo, we often talk a lot about the lubricant as a component in its own right. In the past, the traditional way of choosing a lubricant was more about building machines first, then finding an oil that fit the job to lubricate it. Things like fuel efficiency didn’t really matter — it was more about availability and function.

But today, there’s more of a focus on durability, fuel efficiency, global availability and dual function, so it’s more of a payload set now. We consider our lubricants to be a component within the machines. You could compare them with a bearing, seal or gear — they’re equally as important to the function of the system as any of the parts that are actually built into the mechanical system.

What’s the benefit of premium lubricants over lower-cost options?

1. Better fuel efficiency. If you look at an engine, friction is one of the most important issues to address. You want to reduce friction in the cylinders, bearings and so on, but you also need that oil to maintain its lubricating characteristics over a longer period of time. Older style oils tend to break down — they change quickly as a result of exposure to temperature, water or oxygen. In turn, that means you have to change the oil more often. Modern lubricants are much more robust and keep their characteristics for a much longer period of time. They’re also designed to hold dirt in suspension so it gets captured in the filter, keeping your engine cleaner. All of this means performance of the machine as a whole can be maintained at the same level for a full drain interval. Better performance of the machine equates to fewer gallons burned each day.

Premium LubricantsAs an example, it’s common for companies to use 15W-40 viscosity grade oils for the engine. However, it’s possible to use a lower viscosity engine oil while maintaining protection of the engine, while at the same time potentially reducing fuel consumption by 0.5%. So, if you changed from a 15W-40 to a 10W-30, for example, you could improve your fuel efficiency. In fact, our tests have shown fuel savings for one year (approx. 1600 hours) for an L180F wheel loader by as much as 300 gallons. Alternatively, you could get a faster speed or greater productivity from your machine. Some customers have achieved both reduced fuel consumption and a productivity improvement to really boost their bottom lines.

2. Less maintenance. Most premium lubricants are designed specifically for the machines in which they’re intended to be used. Volvo Lubricants, for example, are manufactured specifically for Volvo machines. They’re developed for the precise temperatures, loads and speeds of the equipment. That match means they lubricate better and last longer — and as a result, customers experience fewer trips to the shop for routine maintenance and repairs.

3. Reduced machine loss. Premium lubricants help reduce losses in the rest of the machine. When we talk about fuel consumption, it’s not just friction in your engine or the amount of weight that you’re carrying that impacts it. It’s also the amount of energy that’s consumed within the machine itself (see diagram below).

Lubricants and Energy Efficiency

 

Total energy losses for a typical construction machine are approximately 80% — only 20% of the energy from the fuel is transformed into useful mechanical work in the hydraulic system and wheels. Lower viscosity fluids are easier to pump around, and by choosing them, you can reduce the overall losses by reducing friction and heat. Even a small improvement in each system will make a huge difference in overall machine efficiency.

Premium LubricantsAt Volvo, we’ve worked hard to reduce the viscosity levels in our fluids while maintaining strict levels of durability. Introducing the lower viscosity levels found in premium lubricants can reduce your losses by as much as 0.5% per component. Over time, that’s a huge savings.

4. Optimized friction. Most lubricants are developed to minimize friction, but sometimes you actually want to optimize it. You may actually want to increase friction in some cases, especially in clutches or in a wet brake system. Obviously in a brake system you don’t want to minimize friction. You want the machine to stop, but you also want to avoid brake noise. Brake noise is a friction characteristic, and premium lubricants are developed to optimize friction to reduce or eliminate it.

To improve performance and lower costs, it’s really important to understand what lubricants are and how they actually work. A common view is that an oil is just something off the shelf that’s a necessary part of keeping a machine up and running. But with premium oils, there’s actually a development phase behind them alongside machine development — they go hand in hand. They’re designed to work in harmony to give operations superior performance, decreased maintenance and better trade-in values at the end.

If you’d like to learn more about the value of premium lubricants and parts, visit our Genuine Volvo Maintenance Parts page to see our full offering of premium oils, greases, filters and more.


Donald McCarthy – Oil & Lubricant Engineer

Donald has worked for Volvo CE since 2008, originally in driveline development concentrating on automatic transmission fluids and axle oils. Currently he works as a Volvo CE lubricants specialist in the Materials Science and Systems Testing department in Eskilstuna, Sweden, covering all lubricants used in Volvo machines and expanding into the rapidly changing world of fuels.

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Greg Bunko
3 years ago

A good article explaining lubricants and why you should use genuine. Myself I always recommend the genuine article.