Universal Joint Grease Development

A project was conducted where different types of greases with different additives were evaluated in an effort to determine if performance improvements could be obtained in the universal joint application. A typical universal joint is displayed in Figure 1. Several different types of greases, calcium, lithium, lithium complex and polyurea were evaluated and compared to the current universal joint grease. The required grease for a universal joint must be a maintenance free grease that is used in a full complement of needle bearings. The results showed that a particular lithium complex grease provided the best results as seen during bench top and environmental wear testing. Customer vehicle testing of the lithium complex grease confirmed that the universal joint life was significantly improved. The new grease was subsequently placed into production use.