Evaluation of Palm Stearin as Shaft Lubricant

Abstract

The shaft is very important which have been used to transmit the power. Over a longer period, shaft may be worn. Hence to reduce the worn effect, the shaft must be lubricated. Nowadays, Malaysia is being one of the biggest producers and exporters of palm oil product. Thus, by using this advantage, Palm Stearin which is solid fraction obtained by the fractionation of palm oil after crystallization is being used as a shaft lubricant. This research has been conducted to determine the frictional force of rotational shaft and to observe the wear and surface roughness. The experiment is conducted within 20 mins for each speed which are variance from 200 rpm to 1200 rpm with increment by 200 rpm by using modified pin on disc machine. Based on the result, Palm Stearin show the good performance which is has the lower frictional force compare with two others industrial lubricants. Besides that, surface roughness and wear of shaft did show any significance difference for before and after the experiments. It can be conclude that the Palm Stearin has the lower frictional force which is in the range from 2 N to 4.1 N.