Sunday, March 21, 2021
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Friday, March 19, 2021
Monday, February 15, 2021
Tuesday, February 09, 2021
Profiles in the Automotive Industry- Elon Reeve Musk
- Elon Reeve Musk is an engineer, best known as cofounder PayPal, founder SpaceX, early investor and CEO Tesla, founder Boring Company, and more.
- Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa.
- After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived mostly with his father in Pretoria.
- Musk graduated from Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa.
- At age 10, he developed an interest in computing using the Commodore VIC-20.
- He learned computer programming using a manua. By12, he sold a BASIC-based video game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500.
- An awkward and introverted child, Musk was bullied throughout his childhood and was once hospitalized after a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs.
- He attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Bryanston High School before graduating from Pretoria Boys High School.
- He moved to Canada in 1989, lived with a cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs at a farm and lumber-mill.
- In 1990, Musk entered Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
- Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania; he graduated in 1997 with a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a BA in Physics.
- In 1994, Musk interned in Silicon Valley at an energy storage start-up called Pinnacle Research Institute and at start-up Rocket Science Games.
- In 1995, Musk, co-founded Zip2, with his brother Kimbal and Greg Kouri. Using funds from angel investors, Zip2 developed an internet city guide for publishers.
- Musk slept on the couch and showered at the YMCA. He coded at seven nights a week, so the company’s single computer could be used in the day for business.
- Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.
- In 1999, Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307M in cash. Musk received $22M for his 7%.
- In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company, with $10 million from the sale of Zip2.
- One year later, the company merged with Confinity, which had a money-transfer service called PayPal. The merged company was renamed PayPal in 2001.
- In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received $165 million for his 11.7%.
- In 2001, Musk conceived of Mars Oasis, a greenhouse on Mars to save mankind.
- In 2002, after two failed attempts to buy Russian ICBMs, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp., trading as SpaceX, with $100M his own funds.
- In 2006, SpaceX was selected as one of two companies to for a crew and cargo resupply demonstration contract to the ISS
- In 2008, SpaceX received $1.6 billion for a Commercial Resupply Services program.
- Starting in 2011, SpaceX was funded to develop the Dragon 2 crew capsule.
- SpaceX’s goal is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight by a factor of 10. SpaceX successfully landed the first stage near the launch pad and later on a drone ship.
- In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in operation.
- In 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of LEO satellites to provide Internet access. The total cost of the decade-long project will be $10B.
- In May 2020, SpaceX launched its first manned flight, the Demo-2 to the ISS.
- Musk hopes to send humans to Mars within 20 years, with the first launch in 2022.
- In 2004, Musk led the Series A round of investment in Tesla. He joined Tesla’s Board as Chair. Musk became CEO and product architect in 2008.
- Tesla first built an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in 2008, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. Tesla began delivery of its Model S in June 2012.
- The Model X, announced in February 2012, was launch September 2015.
- In July 2016, Gigafactory 1 was opened near Reno, NV. Gigafactory 1 produces 35 GWh/year of batteries. In 2019, Musk opened Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory.
- In 2016, Tesla began developing Autopilot in-house after dropping Mobileye.
- In 2019, Musk unveiled the Tesla Cybertruck with commercial production in 2021.
- As of 2020, the Tesla Model 3 is the world’s best-selling electric car (500,000 units).
- In 2016, Musk owned about 28.9M Tesla shares, equal to 22% of the company.
- In 2006, Musk co-founded SolarCity, which his cousins. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States.
- In 2012, Musk announced that SolarCity and Tesla would collaborate to use electric vehicle batteries to smooth the impact of rooftop solar on the power grid.
- Tesla acquired SolarCity for over $2 billion in 2016 as its solar division
- In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology start-up company to integrate the human brain with AI. These enhancements could improve memory or allow more direct interfacing with computing devices.
- After being stuck in traffic, he founded The Boring Company to create traffic tunnels.
- A tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2020.
- In 2013, Musk unveiled Hyperloop, a concept for high-speed transportation system reduced-pressure tubes in which capsules ride on an air cushion.
- In December 2015, Musk announced OpenAI, a not-for-profit AI research company. OpenAI wants to keep large corporations from gaining too much power with AI.
- Musk is chairman of the Musk Foundation to provide solar-power energy systems in disaster areas as well as other goals. Since 2002, he has made over 350 contributions.
- In 2020, Musk has become the world’s richest person, as his net worth crossed $185B, taking the top spot from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
- Musk does not really care about money. He is an engineer. He has sold all of his home so he can live a simply life and continue inventing.
How often do you have to change the 12V battery in a passenger car?
Monday, January 25, 2021
Monday, January 18, 2021
Monday, January 11, 2021
Thursday, January 07, 2021
Sunday, January 03, 2021
Friday, January 01, 2021
Profiles in the Automotive industry:John J. Mooney, an Inventor of the Catalytic Converter
John Joseph Mooney (April 6, 1930 – June 16, 2020) was an American chemical engineer who was co-inventor of the three-way catalytic converter, which has played a dramatic role in reducing pollution from motor vehicles since their introduction in the mid-1970s.
While serving in the United States Army from 1955 to 1956, Mooney was assigned to a series of nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, which included 17 atom bomb and two hydrogen bomb tests. Mooney was as close as 7½ miles from fission bomb tests.[1]
Mooney came to Engelhard in 1960, after graduate school, as a result of a connection made in an electrochemical engineering course. He worked at the company's Gas Equipment Division. Among his first tasks there were purification of hydrogen, purification and catalysis of ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen and a process for using a ruthenium catalyst to produce hydrogen from liquid ammonia for the United States Air Force. As a result, the Air Force was able to easily supply hydrogen for weather balloons, since it was more efficient to ship liquid ammonia to distant locations than cylinders of gas.
The 1970 amendments to the Clean Air Act required significant reductions in hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. The converters available at the time were oxidation catalysts, which could handle hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide, but were ineffective in reducing nitrogen oxides. Car manufacturers and catalyst companies were trying to develop a multiple step process that would address hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide in one process while reducing nitrogen oxides in another.
Chemist Carl D. Keith and Mooney with their team at Engelhard came up with the first production catalytic converter in 1973. The three-way catalyst developed by them allowed all three exhaust pollutants (hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides) to be remedied using a single catalyst bed. Their solution to addressing the variations in air/fuel mixtures was to combine rare-earth oxides and base metal oxide components in the catalyst together with Platinum and Rhodium in a ceramic honeycomb with tiny passages coated with the catalytic material. This design ensured that the oxygen needed in the reactions was absorbed when it was in excess and released when it was needed, allowing all three pollutants to be removed in a single catalytic component. The three-way catalytic converter reduces nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen, oxidizes carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and oxidizes unburnt hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water.
Jan 2021 Monthly quiz in Audio format!
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Ode to Santa and the Economy
There goes Santa, running for his sleigh;
He’s gotta run fast, to get away.
You see, the economy has struck the North Pole as well;
The elves are on strike, and his wife is givin' em' hell.
These days when Santa appears at the local department store;
It’s not just for fun or photos, but for gifts he needs to score.
He'll check the store layout and make a quick dash;
Why even Santa max'd out his credit card and is low on cash.
So off he goes, into the night;
To find those gifts, and get out of sight.
Now, he’s not going to make a whole lot of stops;
‘Cause look out Santa… here comes the cops.
Santa leaps to his sleigh and flys far into the night;
Carrying all those gifts, on his yearly flight.
Way into the morning, the police search high and low;
Only to find a few tracks left in the snow.
You'll hear all the alarms blaring, late into the night;
But old Saint Nick will be long gone, and clean out of sight.
Santa has to be quick, to have it done by Christmas Eve;
So many gifts, and so many places to be…
The presents will be wrapped, and the tags will be off;
Cause old Santa is very careful, not to get caught.
So check your presents, early on Christmas day;
(Keep it hush-hush if they're from Santa, OK...?)
Now, I don’t know if Old Saint Nick, stopped at your house or not;
But If he did … … … … …
.....THOSE GIFTS ARE . . . HOT ! !
Created by Scott "Gonzo" Weaver ... thank you Scott for the submission!
Tuesday, December 01, 2020
Inventions & Profiles in automotive Industry- Discovery of "SYNTHETIC" oils
SYNTHETIC HISTORY:
Long before man discovered petroleum oil, rendered animal fat, whale oil and vegetable oil were used as lubricants. These oils can be considered the first synthetic oils because they were man-made from ingredients in his environment. It wasn't until the 1860's that petroleum oil became a popular lubricant.
In the 1930's, Standard Oil of Indiana perfected the process of synthesizing high-quality lubricating oil from biological compounds such as animal fat and plant seed oil. Even though this new oil was a terrific lubricant, its value was offset by its high cost. Subsequently, the formulas were shelved and began to gather dust in the archives of the U.S. patent office.
During World War II, the U.S. successfully cut off Germany from the rich oil reserves of the Arabian countries. The plan was to starve Hitler of petroleum, a most necessary ingredient for any war machine to function. Without gas and oil, Hitler's army would come to a screeching halt. Gasoline wasn't necessary, because the military tanks and hardware could be retuned to run on alcohol made from corn and other forms of biomass. But there was still a need for lubricating oils.
Using information gained from the archives of the U.S. patent office, Hitler put his best scientific minds to work to produce oils from alcohol and natural gas. Soon, the wheels of his army's machinery as well as his aircraft engines were lubricated by high-quality manmade oils. Rommel was running circles around the U.S. Army because his tanks had superior lubricants and could easily withstand the rigors of the desert heat.
When our troops overtook Hitler's army, they often found Nazi military jeeps and VWs left behind with a rock wedged against the accelerator pedal. The Germans didn't have time to destroy the vehicles and thought that the engines would blow up if left running at full throttle. But because of the incredible synthetic lubricants that were used, the engines merely ran until the fuel tank was empty and died. Our troops refueled them and continued chasing Rommel with some of his own machinery!
During this time, Both Hitler and the U.S. were developing jet propulsion. We were having a difficult time keeping jet turbines from destroying themselves because of the extreme operating conditions they had to endure. The inside of the turbine reached somewhere around 600'F while the outside had to withstand -40~ There wasn't a lubricant made that could take that kind of punishment. But Hitler's highly developed synthetic oils were able to operate under those conditions and his air force had the first jets.
After the war, the U.S. military was anxious to get its hands on the German military secret oil formulations. After we captured the German scientific archives in Berlin, their top secret formulations were turned over to the big five oil companies for further research.
A brilliant chemical engineer named Pete Peterson became America's top synlube expert, working to implement the German formulations. During this time more than two dozen small companies began producing synthetic lubricants for the military, and Peterson consulted with them to bring on the new age of synlubes.
In the late sixties, a fighter pilot named Alvin Fagan retired and started the first synthetic oil company to sell to the general public: All-Proof, of Duluth, Minn. Fagan reasoned that vehicles operating in the harsh northern winters could benefit from synlubes because of their ability to withstand extreme cold temperatures.
Fagan was not a marketing genius and his products were very slow to catch on. He employed another retired pilot, Albert Amatuzio, who had a vision of starting his own synthetic oil company. Amatuzio borrowed money from his brother, Dick, and took the formulations he learned about from Fagan and opened Amzoil across the river from All-Proof in Superior, Wis.
Amatuzio employed multi-level marketing (MLM) strategies for his synlubes similar to those used by Amway. MLM was hot and the company flourished. Meanwhile, Amatuzio's brother, Dick, still owned 40% of the company and, for unknown reasons couldn't get any money for his shares. He ultimately sued and left, leaving a scar between the two that endures today. Soon after this incident, Pennzoil sued Amzoil for copyright infringement, claiming that Anizoil's name was too similar to Pennzoil. They won the suit and Amatuzio had to change the name to Amsoil.
During the same time, John Williams, owner of Pacer Petroleum products, bought a new car for his daughter who was about to go off to college. He wanted to put an oil in the engine that would be able to last for the whole year she was away. So he filled it with new synthetic oils. She told a few friends about the wonderful oil her dad had put in the engine. Soon, the school auto shop heard the story and wanted to talk to her about this new, long-lasting lubricant.
It didn't take long for the local media to get wind of the story. Before he knew it, Williams was flooded with calls from people wanting to know more about this new oil. A man named Sol Levy saw the unique opportunity to join forces with Williams and market this new oil. In 1970 Pacer Petroleum got an SAE grade for the oil and started a division called EON Oil.
All-Proof had been using a formula containing 100% alcohol diester, one of hundreds of esters that were being sold without any wear-protecting additives. Certain diesters will dissolve the zinc coating on engine surfaces and accelerate wear. Unfortunately, Pacer was buying its synthetic oils from AllProof, with disastrous consequences. Pacer had convinced the city of Houston to run a test on their EON brand using the city fleet of vehicles. Soon after, the engines began having camshaft failures and the city sued EON for engine damage.
A number of Pacer dealers began telling people that EON oil was "better than the big oil brand and without the double cross." They were referring to Exxon motor oil which sued them in 1975 for trademark infringement. Exxon pointed out that EON sounded too similiar to EXxon. The case never went to court, but Williams received a settlement from Exxon to facilitate the name change of the company. The settlement (somewhere between 1/2 to 1 million dollars) was supposed to pay for the EON dealers' additional advertising for the name change. Williams pocketed the money, and the dealers received nothing.
Paul Baker, a large EON dealer in California, came up with a new name, mixing the letters to form NEO, and then petitioned Pacer to use the new name. Williams said Pacer Petroleum would use MLM and their synthetic oil under the Ultron name. Norman Lotz was recruited to head up the MLM effort and began undercutting former EON dealers by selling directly to their old accounts. The general idea was to cut EON dealers out of the picture.
Angry about the situation, Baker trademarked the NEO name, and started the NEO company in California in 1976. His basic premise was to use only the finest synthetic oil ingredients available. Unfortunately, he was still dependent on Pacer for his stock and in 1981, Williams threatened to cut off his supply. Meanwhile, Williams sold the EON division to Morton Thiacol, the rocket fuel company, forcing Baker to begin sourcing his own synthetic base stocks and bottling his own oil.
NEO introduced the first 100:1 2-cycle oil, the first synthetic gear lube as well as synthetic ATF. To this day, NEO utilizes the finest base stocks available for their oil. As Baker puts it, "I do not cut corners on our oil, and only use the finest stock, regardless of price."
Meanwhile, during the early seventies, a company called Blaze Oil began rebottling Amsoil and selling it under the Blaze Oil name in the south. Al Ainatuzio wasn't interested in that part of the country and was happy to make a profit selling in an area where his company had very little penetration. It didn't seem like synthetic oil - a product especially suitable for cold climates - would be popular in the hot south. But soon, Blaze was selling as much oil in the southern states as Amsoil was in the north.
Amatuzio later threatened to cut off the supply to Blaze and was ultimately sued for breaking his supply contract.
It was about this time that Amatuzio was taken to task by the federal government for selling synthetic industrial oils with little or no synthetic base stocks. The Feds told him to either stop calling it synthetic oil or put synthetic oil in it. In the mid-eighties, Amsoil stopped using high-quality diester base stocks, substituting cheap olefins instead. Even today, it is rumored that many of Amsoil's synthetic products are actually petroleum products with some synthetic added.
The rapidly rising wholesale costs of diester base stocks had synthetic lubricant prices jumping every six months. While all the other synlube companies had to raise their prices, Amsoil was lowering theirs. Amsoil sells their diesel oil to commercial accounts for less than $2 per quart! This was possible by switching to less effective polyol alpha olefin base stocks. Amsoil dealers began seeing engines sludge up like never before and many stopped using synlubes or changed to other brands of synlubes.
During the seventies, Peter Felice and Tim Kerrigan were working with Pacer Petroleum marketing EON. They were unhappy with Pacer and experienced many problems with mis-labeling, and incomplete additive packages and quality control. They switched to All-Proof. During the demise of Pacer, Kerrigan and Felice started Red Line in California. All-Proof decided to sue them for stealing the idea and started a competing company. Red Line counter-sued and won a $700,000 judgment against AllProof, which forced them to fold.
Not all synthetic oils are created equal. In fact, there is a tremendous difference between Amsoil, NEO, Mobil-1, Syntec, Red Line and the other brands. The chief difference is the base stock, which comprises some 90% of the oil. The base stock is the actual lubricant, the other 10% or so is the additive package.
Petroleum oils, or petrolubes, use a complex mixture of hydrocarbon molecules derived from refining crude oil base stocks into more uniform materials. Refineries remove most of the natural contaminants. The worst for the engine, wax, is never entirely removed and is a problem because it is a poor lubricant and reacts to heat by forming damaging byproducts.
By definition, synthetic oil means that it is not made from petroleum. Petroleum oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons. The refining process, (an extraction procedure, rather than a synthesis procedure), extracts the bad and leaves the good molecules. With a synthesis procedure, chemically smaller molecules of low molecular weight are combined to build a bigger molecule. The resulting high weight molecule is an excellent lubricant.
The relative ability of an oil to lubricate is determined by the components of the base stock. There are two principal classes of base stocks used in synthetic oils: synthesized hydrocarbons and organic esters.
The base stock materials used today for most popular synlubes are made of carbon and hydrogen molecules synthesized from ethylene gas molecules into polyalphaolefin (PAO). In fact, Mobil Oil took out a patent on the name Synthetic Hydrocarbon (SHC) in 1975. This material mimics petroleum molecules, using the good features and eliminating the bad ones. SHC's provide better viscosity characteristics than petrolubes, especially low temperature operating properties. SHC's are also more resistant to
o*dation. However, there is no significant improvement in the
degree of thermal stability because they are still hydrocarbon molecules which are very similar to petroleum hydrocarbon molecules.
Some of the popular brands of PAO oils include Amsoil, Mobil-1 and Castrol Syntec. PAO's are the cheapest synthetic oil base stocks. You can purchase them for as little as $3 a quart. PAO's aren't as durable as the other class of synthetic oils, the esters.
Organic esters are made by reacting certain acids with alcohols forming acid esters, diesters and polyol esters. This process uses expensive materials and results in an oil that costs about $8 per quart. NEO claims to use alcohol diester base stocks. Amsoil started out using diesters, but changed in the mid 80's to a blend of several synthetic base stocks with PAO being the main ingredient. Red Line uses polyol ester base stocks which are modified to improve thermal stability and performance.
All synlubes use widely differing additive chemistry. Some use highquality additives, some use cheap ones. None of the synthetic oils have problems with wax contamination because they are man made and don't come from crude oil. The esters have a big advantage because they are natural engine detergents. Right from the start, they have better sludge dispersing capability. PAO oils require detergent-dispersant additives and viscosity improvers.
It is important to know that synthetic oil companies are not completely divorced from using crude oil petrochemicals. Oil wells are still necessary to produce thete petrochemicals, which are used in the synthesis process. A considerable amount of energy is needed to build the synthetic materials. The amount of petrochemical needed varies with the type of base stock utilized. While PAO's are derived from 100% petrochemicals, esters are largely biological in origin and require less petrochemicals.
To lower costs, some synthetic oils contain petroleum oils in their base stocks. These oils are actually parasynthetic or semi-synthetic oils. In Europe, some oil companies are simply adding hydrogen to petroleum oil and calling it synthetic oil. It is truly a gray area, requiring clarification, SAE standardization and truth-in-labeling.
Long before man discovered petroleum oil, rendered animal fat, whale oil and vegetable oil were used as lubricants. These oils can be considered the first synthetic oils because they were man-made from ingredients in his environment. It wasn't until the 1860's that petroleum oil became a popular lubricant.
In the 1930's, Standard Oil of Indiana perfected the process of synthesizing high-quality lubricating oil from biological compounds such as animal fat and plant seed oil. Even though this new oil was a terrific lubricant, its value was offset by its high cost. Subsequently, the formulas were shelved and began to gather dust in the archives of the U.S. patent office.
During World War II, the U.S. successfully cut off Germany from the rich oil reserves of the Arabian countries. The plan was to starve Hitler of petroleum, a most necessary ingredient for any war machine to function. Without gas and oil, Hitler's army would come to a screeching halt. Gasoline wasn't necessary, because the military tanks and hardware could be retuned to run on alcohol made from corn and other forms of biomass. But there was still a need for lubricating oils.
Using information gained from the archives of the U.S. patent office, Hitler put his best scientific minds to work to produce oils from alcohol and natural gas. Soon, the wheels of his army's machinery as well as his aircraft engines were lubricated by high-quality manmade oils. Rommel was running circles around the U.S. Army because his tanks had superior lubricants and could easily withstand the rigors of the desert heat.
When our troops overtook Hitler's army, they often found Nazi military jeeps and VWs left behind with a rock wedged against the accelerator pedal. The Germans didn't have time to destroy the vehicles and thought that the engines would blow up if left running at full throttle. But because of the incredible synthetic lubricants that were used, the engines merely ran until the fuel tank was empty and died. Our troops refueled them and continued chasing Rommel with some of his own machinery!
During this time, Both Hitler and the U.S. were developing jet propulsion. We were having a difficult time keeping jet turbines from destroying themselves because of the extreme operating conditions they had to endure. The inside of the turbine reached somewhere around 600'F while the outside had to withstand -40~ There wasn't a lubricant made that could take that kind of punishment. But Hitler's highly developed synthetic oils were able to operate under those conditions and his air force had the first jets.
After the war, the U.S. military was anxious to get its hands on the German military secret oil formulations. After we captured the German scientific archives in Berlin, their top secret formulations were turned over to the big five oil companies for further research.
A brilliant chemical engineer named Pete Peterson became America's top synlube expert, working to implement the German formulations. During this time more than two dozen small companies began producing synthetic lubricants for the military, and Peterson consulted with them to bring on the new age of synlubes.
In the late sixties, a fighter pilot named Alvin Fagan retired and started the first synthetic oil company to sell to the general public: All-Proof, of Duluth, Minn. Fagan reasoned that vehicles operating in the harsh northern winters could benefit from synlubes because of their ability to withstand extreme cold temperatures.
Fagan was not a marketing genius and his products were very slow to catch on. He employed another retired pilot, Albert Amatuzio, who had a vision of starting his own synthetic oil company. Amatuzio borrowed money from his brother, Dick, and took the formulations he learned about from Fagan and opened Amzoil across the river from All-Proof in Superior, Wis.
Amatuzio employed multi-level marketing (MLM) strategies for his synlubes similar to those used by Amway. MLM was hot and the company flourished. Meanwhile, Amatuzio's brother, Dick, still owned 40% of the company and, for unknown reasons couldn't get any money for his shares. He ultimately sued and left, leaving a scar between the two that endures today. Soon after this incident, Pennzoil sued Amzoil for copyright infringement, claiming that Anizoil's name was too similar to Pennzoil. They won the suit and Amatuzio had to change the name to Amsoil.
During the same time, John Williams, owner of Pacer Petroleum products, bought a new car for his daughter who was about to go off to college. He wanted to put an oil in the engine that would be able to last for the whole year she was away. So he filled it with new synthetic oils. She told a few friends about the wonderful oil her dad had put in the engine. Soon, the school auto shop heard the story and wanted to talk to her about this new, long-lasting lubricant.
It didn't take long for the local media to get wind of the story. Before he knew it, Williams was flooded with calls from people wanting to know more about this new oil. A man named Sol Levy saw the unique opportunity to join forces with Williams and market this new oil. In 1970 Pacer Petroleum got an SAE grade for the oil and started a division called EON Oil.
All-Proof had been using a formula containing 100% alcohol diester, one of hundreds of esters that were being sold without any wear-protecting additives. Certain diesters will dissolve the zinc coating on engine surfaces and accelerate wear. Unfortunately, Pacer was buying its synthetic oils from AllProof, with disastrous consequences. Pacer had convinced the city of Houston to run a test on their EON brand using the city fleet of vehicles. Soon after, the engines began having camshaft failures and the city sued EON for engine damage.
A number of Pacer dealers began telling people that EON oil was "better than the big oil brand and without the double cross." They were referring to Exxon motor oil which sued them in 1975 for trademark infringement. Exxon pointed out that EON sounded too similiar to EXxon. The case never went to court, but Williams received a settlement from Exxon to facilitate the name change of the company. The settlement (somewhere between 1/2 to 1 million dollars) was supposed to pay for the EON dealers' additional advertising for the name change. Williams pocketed the money, and the dealers received nothing.
Paul Baker, a large EON dealer in California, came up with a new name, mixing the letters to form NEO, and then petitioned Pacer to use the new name. Williams said Pacer Petroleum would use MLM and their synthetic oil under the Ultron name. Norman Lotz was recruited to head up the MLM effort and began undercutting former EON dealers by selling directly to their old accounts. The general idea was to cut EON dealers out of the picture.
Angry about the situation, Baker trademarked the NEO name, and started the NEO company in California in 1976. His basic premise was to use only the finest synthetic oil ingredients available. Unfortunately, he was still dependent on Pacer for his stock and in 1981, Williams threatened to cut off his supply. Meanwhile, Williams sold the EON division to Morton Thiacol, the rocket fuel company, forcing Baker to begin sourcing his own synthetic base stocks and bottling his own oil.
NEO introduced the first 100:1 2-cycle oil, the first synthetic gear lube as well as synthetic ATF. To this day, NEO utilizes the finest base stocks available for their oil. As Baker puts it, "I do not cut corners on our oil, and only use the finest stock, regardless of price."
Meanwhile, during the early seventies, a company called Blaze Oil began rebottling Amsoil and selling it under the Blaze Oil name in the south. Al Ainatuzio wasn't interested in that part of the country and was happy to make a profit selling in an area where his company had very little penetration. It didn't seem like synthetic oil - a product especially suitable for cold climates - would be popular in the hot south. But soon, Blaze was selling as much oil in the southern states as Amsoil was in the north.
Amatuzio later threatened to cut off the supply to Blaze and was ultimately sued for breaking his supply contract.
It was about this time that Amatuzio was taken to task by the federal government for selling synthetic industrial oils with little or no synthetic base stocks. The Feds told him to either stop calling it synthetic oil or put synthetic oil in it. In the mid-eighties, Amsoil stopped using high-quality diester base stocks, substituting cheap olefins instead. Even today, it is rumored that many of Amsoil's synthetic products are actually petroleum products with some synthetic added.
The rapidly rising wholesale costs of diester base stocks had synthetic lubricant prices jumping every six months. While all the other synlube companies had to raise their prices, Amsoil was lowering theirs. Amsoil sells their diesel oil to commercial accounts for less than $2 per quart! This was possible by switching to less effective polyol alpha olefin base stocks. Amsoil dealers began seeing engines sludge up like never before and many stopped using synlubes or changed to other brands of synlubes.
During the seventies, Peter Felice and Tim Kerrigan were working with Pacer Petroleum marketing EON. They were unhappy with Pacer and experienced many problems with mis-labeling, and incomplete additive packages and quality control. They switched to All-Proof. During the demise of Pacer, Kerrigan and Felice started Red Line in California. All-Proof decided to sue them for stealing the idea and started a competing company. Red Line counter-sued and won a $700,000 judgment against AllProof, which forced them to fold.
Not all synthetic oils are created equal. In fact, there is a tremendous difference between Amsoil, NEO, Mobil-1, Syntec, Red Line and the other brands. The chief difference is the base stock, which comprises some 90% of the oil. The base stock is the actual lubricant, the other 10% or so is the additive package.
Petroleum oils, or petrolubes, use a complex mixture of hydrocarbon molecules derived from refining crude oil base stocks into more uniform materials. Refineries remove most of the natural contaminants. The worst for the engine, wax, is never entirely removed and is a problem because it is a poor lubricant and reacts to heat by forming damaging byproducts.
By definition, synthetic oil means that it is not made from petroleum. Petroleum oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons. The refining process, (an extraction procedure, rather than a synthesis procedure), extracts the bad and leaves the good molecules. With a synthesis procedure, chemically smaller molecules of low molecular weight are combined to build a bigger molecule. The resulting high weight molecule is an excellent lubricant.
The relative ability of an oil to lubricate is determined by the components of the base stock. There are two principal classes of base stocks used in synthetic oils: synthesized hydrocarbons and organic esters.
The base stock materials used today for most popular synlubes are made of carbon and hydrogen molecules synthesized from ethylene gas molecules into polyalphaolefin (PAO). In fact, Mobil Oil took out a patent on the name Synthetic Hydrocarbon (SHC) in 1975. This material mimics petroleum molecules, using the good features and eliminating the bad ones. SHC's provide better viscosity characteristics than petrolubes, especially low temperature operating properties. SHC's are also more resistant to
o*dation. However, there is no significant improvement in the
degree of thermal stability because they are still hydrocarbon molecules which are very similar to petroleum hydrocarbon molecules.
Some of the popular brands of PAO oils include Amsoil, Mobil-1 and Castrol Syntec. PAO's are the cheapest synthetic oil base stocks. You can purchase them for as little as $3 a quart. PAO's aren't as durable as the other class of synthetic oils, the esters.
Organic esters are made by reacting certain acids with alcohols forming acid esters, diesters and polyol esters. This process uses expensive materials and results in an oil that costs about $8 per quart. NEO claims to use alcohol diester base stocks. Amsoil started out using diesters, but changed in the mid 80's to a blend of several synthetic base stocks with PAO being the main ingredient. Red Line uses polyol ester base stocks which are modified to improve thermal stability and performance.
All synlubes use widely differing additive chemistry. Some use highquality additives, some use cheap ones. None of the synthetic oils have problems with wax contamination because they are man made and don't come from crude oil. The esters have a big advantage because they are natural engine detergents. Right from the start, they have better sludge dispersing capability. PAO oils require detergent-dispersant additives and viscosity improvers.
It is important to know that synthetic oil companies are not completely divorced from using crude oil petrochemicals. Oil wells are still necessary to produce thete petrochemicals, which are used in the synthesis process. A considerable amount of energy is needed to build the synthetic materials. The amount of petrochemical needed varies with the type of base stock utilized. While PAO's are derived from 100% petrochemicals, esters are largely biological in origin and require less petrochemicals.
To lower costs, some synthetic oils contain petroleum oils in their base stocks. These oils are actually parasynthetic or semi-synthetic oils. In Europe, some oil companies are simply adding hydrogen to petroleum oil and calling it synthetic oil. It is truly a gray area, requiring clarification, SAE standardization and truth-in-labeling.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
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Thursday, November 05, 2020
First Blog post(Sunday, August 06, 2006)
Ken
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