THE TRIBOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RUBBER SEED OIL WITH MINERAL OIL BLENDS (original) (raw)

Malaysia, in the early years, was known as the main producers of natural rubber that involved large cultivation of rubber trees. The milky latex produces many types of rubber products such as tyres, balloons, boots, gloves and others, its seeds contain oil that can be used in making paints and soaps. In this study, the rubber seed oil was investigated to study its lubricant characteristics. There are two ways for using plant oils as bio-lubricants, either use directly as neat plant oils or using certain blending ratio of the plant oils along with the commercial lubricants. In this paper, the influences of the blending ratio of mineral oil with rubber seeds oil were investigated on the tribological characteristics and compared with commercial lubricant using the four ball tribotester. Rubber seeds oil was blended at volumetric ratio ranging from 20 to 80% with commercial mineral oil SAE 30. All experimental works conformed to ASTM D4172-B. The results show that the some blends of rubber seeds oil with commercial mineral oil have lower coefficient of friction and friction torque compared to commercial mineral oil. In conclusion, the rubber seeds oil blends show a better anti-friction performance compared to mineral oil. Therefore, rubber seeds oil has the potential to be used as lubricant of mating components.