SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1957
STP46904S

The Application of X-Ray Spectrography to Refinery Control of Additive Metals in Lubricating Oils

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During the past 30 years the performance and quality of petroleum lubricants have been vastly improved. These improvements have been made possible by the application of new refining techniques and the invention of hundreds of additives to change and supplement the oil's natural properties. The use of these many additives, although of great utility to the consumer, has added many problems for the manufacturer of lubricating oils, not the least of which is that of quality control analyses. Many of these additives are organo-metallic compounds that may be added to the oils in a wide range of concentrations. The simplest control test for these additives is to analyze for the metallic component. The blending of lubricating oils whether done manually or by the use of automatic proportioning equipment is considered a batch operation, and before a batch can be considered complete and can be removed from the blending vessel, it is necessary to have the control test completed. It is obvious then, that if refineries are to use their lubricating oil blending equipment at its highest efficiency, the laboratory must be able to provide quick and accurate control analyses. To accomplish this, a number of methods such as colorimetric, polarographic, flame photometric, emission spectrographic, and X-ray spectrographic were considered to replace the conventional wet chemical methods.

Author Information

Davis, Elwin, N.
Sinclair Research Laboratories Inc., Harvey, Ill.
Price: $25.00
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Details
Developed by Committee: D02
Pages: 115–123
DOI: 10.1520/STP46904S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-6907-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-6552-6