As a high-tech petroleum product, grease plays an important role in the rapid development of the national economy, cutting-edge science and technology and the development of the national defense industry. The research and development of new grease products and production processes is the most interesting.

Grease, lubricating oil and solid lubricant are the three most important lubricating materials at present. The properties and application conditions of the three lubricating materials are different, and they are basically not interchangeable. In general, grease lubrication should be selected under the following conditions:

（1）It is required that the lubricant must be kept on the lubricating part, and the lubricating part has no oil tank or oil box for storing the lubricant;

（2）It is required that the lubricant not only has a lubricating function, but also has a sealing function to prevent mechanical impurities and moisture from entering the lubricated parts;

（3）The limit value of the sliding linear speed of the grease lubricated bearing (that is, the bearing diameter dn) is less than 350000;

Compared with lubricating oil, the main advantages of using grease lubrication are as follows:

（1）When lubricating with grease, complex sealing devices and oil supply systems are not required, which can greatly simplify the peripheral size of the bearing, which is beneficial to the miniaturization and light weight of the equipment;

（2）The grease has good adhesion and can work on open and poorly sealed friction parts;

（3）Long service life of grease;

（4）Greases have a wider range of film thicknesses than oils.

The production process of lubricating grease can be basically divided into two categories - batch production process and continuous production process. Due to the wide variety of grease products and small batches, the batch method is mainly used for production, which is conducive to the flexible change of grease varieties and to meet the needs of different types of greases in different quantities. At present, most of the lubricating grease in the world is produced by batch production process, and the production of lubricating grease by continuous production process has only limited application. The production of lubricating grease in my country is also mostly produced by batch production process, although the production process of lubricating grease produced by tube furnace has a semi-continuous nature, which is rare in the production of lubricating grease in my country.

The development of my country's grease industry is relatively late, starting in the 1950s. At that time, the grease production process was still in the backward state of manual workshop production in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, mainly producing ordinary calcium-based grease; since the 1980s, my country's grease industrial technology has been rapidly developed, the variety of grease products has increased, the production scale has been expanded, the production process technology and production equipment have been promoted each other, and new processes, new equipment and representative intermittent, continuous In particular, it is worth noting that while introducing foreign advanced technology and grease making equipment, we have successively developed contactors, triple-stirring grease-making kettles, triple-stirring pressure kettles, and high-pressure homogenizers. The new equipment has greatly improved the production efficiency of soap-based grease, formed a complete production process and DCS process control system, and greatly improved the consistency of product quality.

The grease products produced in various countries in the world are mainly soap-based greases. The main processes of the production process include: pretreatment of raw materials, manufacture of thickeners, dispersion of thickeners in lubricating oil, cooling, homogenization, Processes such as grinding, degassing and packaging.

The contactor, also known as the contact pressure saponification reactor, is a pressure reaction mixing tank with strong stirring, high heat transfer, high mass transfer and high efficiency. Since the first contactor was used in grease production in 1929, It shows many of its unique advantages and becomes the main saponification equipment for efficient mass transfer, heat transfer and mixing in the grease production process. The operation of the contactor is usually based on the operation method of preparing concentrated soap base, that is, part of the base oil and other reaction components are added to the contactor at one time, and then the temperature is raised, stirred, and saponified under pressure. After the required maximum refining temperature, the heating is stopped, the pressure is released for dehydration, and then transferred to the blending kettle for cooling and fat formation. At present, domestic soap-based greases, especially general-purpose lithium-based greases, have been fully popularized by the contactor production process, which not only improves production efficiency, but also improves production stability and reduces energy consumption.

Now, my country is the world's largest producer of grease. With the rapid growth of my country's economy and the continuous strengthening of environmental protection requirements while actively advocating the construction of an energy-saving and environmentally friendly society, the requirements for biodegradation are put forward for some of the grease products used. maintenance trends. The R&D and production of lubricating grease is undergoing various opportunities and challenges brought about by the trend of green development. Industry enterprises must follow the trend and respond to the development theme of energy saving, low emission, pollution-free and long life, accelerate structural adjustment, and continue to develop technology. Innovate and seize a favorable competitive position in industrial upgrading.