"More friction on your shock absorbers!"
Rotary shock absorbers are small but very precious components, which allow you to control the deceleration of rotary or linear movements, such as the opening and closing of glove boxes on the front passenger side of your car. To function properly, these shock absorbers need specific lubricants.
The movements of these components can vary:
- a continuous, unidirectional or bidirectional rotation, where the viscosity of the lubricant and the sizing of the throttling play determine the braking torque;
- a partial rotation with a fixed angle, where the braking torque depends both on the viscosity of the lubricant and on the dimensioning of the restriction clearance or of the valve holes.
Given their continuous movements and the wide temperature ranges to which they are subjected, especially in the automotive sector where the temperatures inside the passenger compartment oscillate between -40 ° C and + 80 ° C, the choice of the correct lubricant becomes absolutely fundamental.
Rotating shock absorbers and damping fluids
The most used type of lubricant for rotary shock absorbers are damping braking fluids, compounds with a high coefficient of friction, whose function is to make the friction surfaces float, through the interposition of a continuous, persistent and adhesive plastic and load-bearing wire.
Applied to your rotating shock absorbers, the damping brake fluid maintains the properties of your device unaltered throughout its life, exerting what is technically defined as "active friction", that is able to modulate the sliding speed and create the effect of control you want.
All this without losing the lubricating and anti-wear functions typical of a traditional lubricating grease!
Damping fluids can have both an oily and greasy consistency, depending on the type of system and component in which they operate, but certainly damping lubricating greases are more versatile, as they do not require gaskets or other sealing elements to be contained. They are very sticky compounds, formulated according to your needs starting from high viscosity synthetic oils, combined with thickeners and additives that favor their adhesiveness and braking power.
Rotary shock absorbers and damping grease: how does it work?
Generally, a reduction in temperature produces an increase in friction, while a reduction leads to a collapse. When we talk about rotating shock absorbers and damping lubricating grease, however, the approach in choosing the most correct lubricant for your business changes radically, becoming the opposite: you have to increase the coefficient of friction by reducing mechanical wear.
But how does a damping lubricating grease work?
The high length of the polymer chains of the oils used for its formulation generate an infinite number of attachment points to the reciprocally sliding surfaces, producing a very strong frictional resistance, perfect for the movement of the rotating shock absorbers. The presence of a continuous film of grease, in fact, produces a resistance value directly proportional to the viscous friction of the fluid at the operating temperature.
