Gear Lubrication in Inert Gas Atmospheres

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Abstract
An investigation was made of the effect of inert gas atmospheres on the gear load-carrying capacity of lubricants. The experiments were performed in two types of gear test machines, using case-hardened AMS-6260 steel test gears. It was found that two mineral oils (a solvent-extracted turbine oil base stock and a USP grade white mineral oil), as well as the same oils fortified with different extreme-pressure additives, all exhibited a decided increase in load-carrying capacity when the gears were operated in an atmosphere of nitrogen or argon instead of air. On the other hand, the response of synthetic lubricants was not found to be necessarily similar. In fact, only one of the six synthetic fluids tested showed any significant increase in load-carrying capacity when the gears were operated in a nitrogen atmosphere.

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