In an extremely interesting article by Lisa Tocci in the April 2014 issue of Lubes´n´Greases entitled “Is this sustainable?” she refers to a presentation made in Esslingen recently by Lutz Lindemann of Fuchs Petrolube. He reported that lubricants consumption worldwide remained essentially unchanged over the past year despite a general global production growth of around 2%. The world’s vehicle population has increased dramatically over the years while the average volume of lubricants consumed per car has fallen sharply. So, while economists are now expecting global GDP to expand by some 3.6% in 2014, how will this relate to our lubricating greases?  A difficult equation to solve!  It does mean however that a lower volume of grease is seemingly doing a very good job and that the value of grease (per kilo) should be much greater.

A small comment however on the visual impression of that very same article. As we all know, “right lubrication” is the right product, in the right place, in the right amount, at the right time (and possibly to the right price!). So why do people insist on providing photos of a bearing in grease? The grease should be in the bearing, not the other way around.  Nice photo, but somehow oh so wrong.

Graham