THE EFFECT OF PALM OIL DIESEL FUEL CONTAMINATED LUBRICANT ON SLIDING WEAR OF CAST IRONS AGAINST MILD-STEEL

The effect of various percentages of palm oil diesel (POD) fuel contam inated lubricants on the wear characteristics of cast irons during sli ding contact was investigated. This was done on three types of cast ir on, namely spheroidal graphite, flake graphite and chilled cast iron a gainst a mild steel disc configuration using a pin-on-disc type of fri ction and wear apparatus. The lubricants used for the test specimen we re Mach 5 SAE 40 with various percentages of POD. For comparison purpo ses, pure diesel engine lubricant oil and pure palm oil diesel were al so used as lubricants. The test conditions were as follows: pressure, 1 MPa; sliding speed, 0.2 m s(-1); sliding distance, 56 km; room tempe rature, approximate to 30 degrees C. It was observed that the addition of 5% palm oil diesel into the engine lubricant improves the performa nce of the lubricant in terms of anti-wear characteristics, reducing t he wear rate of cast irons. The use of pure commercial (0% POD contami nation) lubricant resulted in a moderate wear rate, whilst pure POD (1 00%) lubricant produced the highest wear rate compared with the other combinations of contaminated lubricants.