ILMA Compoundings August 2017 - 21

of fluids and surfaces; (2) preventing wear; (3) maintaining surface
cleanliness; (4) preventing aging and
breakdown of oil; (5) containing and
controlling the impact of contaminants in engine oil; and (6) preventing
corrosion. Simply put, additives help
to create the right balance for the
engine and engine oil to work cohesively.

"Formulating for the next-generation categories is a mixture
of science and art that requires
commitment, creativity, precision and lots of experience."
Formulating for the next-generation
categories is a mixture of science and
art that requires commitment, creativity, precision and lots of experience.
Simultaneously meeting requirements
that sometimes conflict is a formidable challenge. Formulations need to
prevent oil breakdown, reduce friction
and provide wide vehicle application
without sacrificing wear protection
and durability. There are many ways in
which an engine oil could be formulated to improve fuel economy if that
was the only concern, but fuel economy is just one piece of a larger puzzle.
First, we need to solve the TGDI
performance puzzle. The first piece is
LSPI. Over the last couple of years,
the industry has made significant
investment in an effort to understand
the impact of LSPI on engine oils. For
example:
* Formulating for LSPI is not
reliant on simply adjusting the
detergent system
* A matrix approach was taken to
understand the trade-off impacts of key components (e.g.,
detergent, antioxidants) in the
formulation
Chevron Oronite has developed a
formulating space that can help reduce
LSPI while meeting other key perfor-

mance objectives for wear, cleanliness,
fuel economy and more.
As the need for LSPI performance
proliferates around the world, it is
important to understand the fundamental similarities and differences
between key tests defining various
global specifications (e.g., dexos, GF-6
and others). For more details, refer
to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) paper 2015-01-2028,
which was also discussed at Society of
Automotive Engineers of Japan (JSAE)
2015 and the 2016 F+L Asia meeting.
Second, turbocharger protection is
important. Engine oils need to resist
solid residue buildup or coking caused
by high thermal gradient observed in
these contacts.
Third, we need a thorough understanding of the various tribological
parameters affecting the link pin and
plate contact in the chain as we develop
formulations with lower chain wear.
Additive companies clearly have
many challenges as they continue to
improve fuels and lubricants to achieve
higher fuel economy and increased durability. However, significant progress
has been made in recent years, and the
outlook is promising for much more.

Summary - Delivering
Performance within
New Challenges
Total cost of ownership, including
fuel economy and extended drain,
are the likely focus area for engine oil
development over the next decade.
Demands for increased vehicle fuel
economy are leading to new driveline
technologies entering the market.

Engine oil plays the dual role of
directly increasing fuel economy using
lower-viscosity oils while also helping
to enable new hardware technologies
to be introduced. The move toward
lower-viscosity, higher-quality engine
oils is also likely to continue and
accelerate. Technologies such as turbo
-charging, GDI and engine downsizing are placing greater demands on
engine oil formulations. Engine life
and durability cannot be sacrificed for
fuel economy gains. The life expectancy of engines and vehicles is increasing
thanks to improved hardware quality
alongside better fuels and lubricants.

"The life expectancy of engines
and vehicles is increasing
thanks to improved hardware
quality alongside better fuels
and lubricants."
While the industry waits on the
development of GF-6 specification,
there is a more immediate need to
upgrade products to meet the secondgeneration dexos1™ specification
(dexos1™ Gen 2) developed to protect
GM's new turbocharged GDI and
legacy engine platforms before the
expiration of dexos1™ Gen 1 licenses
on Aug. 31, 2017. That is why Chevron
Oronite and others are working closely
with OEMs to make sure additive packages meet current and future technology
needs for the global PCMO market.
Sinha is the global project manager for
Automotive Engine Oils at Chevron Oronite.
This article is based in part on Sinha's
presentation at the ILMA Management Forum
on April 21, 2017.

21
ILMA Compoundings August 2017

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