HPP is a nonprofit organization committed to breaking the cycle of childhood poverty. HPP Director Martha founded HPP in 1989 after coming home from Sudan and Somalia and seeing the acute needs in the USA with freshly opened eyes. “If you don’t have hope, you just ain’t gonna make it,” Ryan said. “One foot in front of the other. That’s how it works.”

TOP 1 Oil has been a proud sponsor of the Homeless Prenatal Program since its inception in 1989. For the full article, please see the below San Francisco Chronicle link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/27/MNU61OAC93.DTL – ixzz1tZSvY0a5.

“We at TOP 1 Oil Products Company are extremely proud to be awarded the prestigious ‘Exporter of the Year’ award,” said Joe Ryan, President. “For 38 years TOP 1 Oil Products Company has exported high quality lubricants worldwide. Our entire product line is exclusively produced in the United States and we have always stressed that ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ is synonymous with superior quality. This award is further incentive for us to meet President Obama’s Export Initiative (NEI) of doubling our sales within the five year plan. We are proud to be participating in this export growth initiative for the United States. At this time we are on track to meet this goal.”

Criteria on which winners were selected include total number of documented export transactions, the total percentage increase in sales, exports as a percentage of total sales, the company’s commitment to exporting, the company’s commitment to customer service, and the company’s innovation and originality in marketing products or services. To be eligible for the award, a company must currently be exporting from the United States.

“TOP 1 Oil Products Company is indicative of how proactive American companies are growing by exporting, said Gregory Sandler, from the U.S. Department of Commerce. “This year’s winners reflect the diversity of American exporters. Exporting is a critical part of the U.S. economy, accounting for 12.5% of the nation’s GDP.”

As grease becomes dry, frictional forces escalate, causing concentrated heat within the bearing. The elevated heat continues to force more rapid and complete drying of the grease. In time, lower quality grease can reach a state of consistency ranging from hard putty to sandstone, depending on the thickener type and degradation conditions.

There are many causes for grease dry-out, and below is a list outlining the most common causes.  Often times, two or more of these causes work in conert with each other to impede the grease from doing its job.

Contamination. Gross contamination by dust, dirt, fly ash and similar dry-power contaminants can thicken the grease just like the introduction of a gelling agent.

Incompatible Grease. Accidental mixing of grease can lead to accelerated de-gelling and oil separation. For example, organic clay grease clashes with soap-thickened grease, and a mixture of a calcium sulfonate grease and a lithium based grease will cause problems if mixed in bearings.

High-temperature Volatility. The lower the viscosity of the base oils used to make the grease, the higher the risk of volatilization.  At sufficiently high temperatures, oil can boil out of the thickener matrix, causing hardening of the grease over time.

Base-oil Oxidation. Oxidized oil can take on the physical characteristics of roofing tar or even coal. The same transformation can occur with grease. At room temperature, high concentrations of cupric catalytic metals in the grease from wear debris causes the copper to prematurely oxidize the base oil in the grease, causing extreme thickening.

Thermal Run-away. Too much grease in a bearing, mechanical conditions (misalignment, excess preload, etc.), and starvation can lead to high running temperatures. This is most commonly associated with over-greasing, causing high heat from churning. In such cases, the dropping point is reached, the bearing begins to bleed, the grease runs dry and eventually failure occurs.

Mechanical Wring-out. Some types of rolling-element bearings are more prone to oil separation. Spherical roller bearings would be such an example. When grease is over-rolled by the bearing or gears, the oil can be rapidly separated from the thickener. This is referred to as mechanical wring-out. The oil is squeezed like a wet sponge. Some thickeners have good reversibility, while others do not. A grease is reversible when oil will quickly reabsorb into the thickener after the load is relaxed. Aluminum complex is a soap-based grease with good reversibility.

Hydrostatic Extrusion. Grease under constant pressure can separate by hydrostatic forces. It’s like water flowing through a sand filter. The sand stays put, but the water flows freely under pressure through the grains of sand (sieving). Some grease products are formulated specifically to resist extrusion by using special thickeners, polar base oils, VI improvers, tackifiers and higher thickener concentrations. Some single-point auto-lubers (spring type) expose grease to constant pressure, which causes bleed and separation from the thickener. The oil is literally being squeezed out of the thickener.

Vibration and Centrifugal Forces. Grease exposed to prolonged vibration and/or centrifugal forces is also known to separate prematurely. High-speed mechanical couplings can spin some grease products dry in a short period of time if the wrong grease is used. Among other things, significant differences in the specific gravity between the base oil and thickener can sharply increase centrifugal separation.

Condition monitoring is key to early detection.  It is always important to get feedback from rebuild shops on what they are seeing inside failed bearings. Any appearance of grease that is questionable (hardness, color, contamination, oxidation, etc.) should be sampled for analysis. Allow failure to be a teacher for continuous improvement.

TOP 1 Hi-Temp Grease is always the right grease for the job!  This lithium complex grease has been time-tested and time-approved, in the field and in the lab, to protect and lubricate applications like automotive wheel bearings, automotive chassis, conveyor bearings, backhoe hinge pins, and bearings subject to shock loads.  TOP 1 Hi-Temp Grease is formulated with synthetic blend base oil and selected additives to attain excellent oxidation stability and protect against rust and extreme pressure loads.

Conventional lithium greases can have 4-Ball wear scars of up to 0.7mm and yield drop points of 175-180°C.  However, TOP 1 Hi-Temp Grease has a 4-Ball wear scar of only 0.45mm and yields an exceptional drop point of 288°C.  Because of these performance capabilities, it can be assured that TOP 1 Hi-Temp Grease can withstand heavy loads with its extreme pressure additives and will not cake-out if used properly.

TOP 1 Oil Evolution fully synthetic PCMO products will provide ultimate protection for engines that run on LPG. Always be sure to use motor oil with the viscosity that your OEM recommends.

Lubricant suppliers should not offer engine oil service interval recommendations only on the strength and reputation of their engine oils, but should always provide customers with the right information so that they can make safe decisions regarding engine oil change intervals. When determining the correct oil change interval for your automobile, it is absolutely necessary to take other factors into account besides the quality of your motor oil.

In addition to knowing what your automobile manufacturer recommends, it is crucial to know the make and model of your engine, the oil capacity of your engine, the maintenance level of your automobile, your engine’s operating conditions, the quality of your oil filter, and the analysis of your oil. Without considering these other factors, you may be setting yourself up for engine problems down the road.

In addition to all of these factors, it is of course important to know the quality of your motor oil.

TOP 1 Evolution OEM Series products will always be able to go the full mileage or time frame recommended by the vehicle manufacturer. TOP 1 Evolution OEM Series products are especially suitable for the latest vehicles with extended drain intervals, up to 15,000 miles.

Oil change intervals vary for different types of cars. Some new cars can last as long as 15,000 miles before an oil change is necessary, while other cars require an oil change after only 3,000 miles. Once again, we recommend that you follow the oil change interval guidelines in your automobile’s owner’s manual.

The TOP 1 Oil Ack Attack, designed by Mr. Mike Akatiff, is the fastest motorcycle in the world!

Recently, the JASO standard has been updated again. Yoshinnobu Yashiro from Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. who is Chairman of the JASO Motorcycle Oil Working Group describes the key changes that needed to be made: “We needed to update the JASO 4T specification to introduce new friction plates and reference oils for the clutch friction test because the existing materials were no longer available. However, we wanted to keep a level of consistency with the existing 2006 specification in terms of testing severity, test oil performance discrimination and classification ability.”

Gear pitting is an important parameter for motorcycle oils, particularly as oil viscosities decrease in order to offer fuel economy performance. As Yashiro-san explains, “Gear pitting is one of the biggest differences between motorcycles and passenger cars. Motorcycle engine oils demand anti-gear pitting performance as they lubricate the engine and the gears. As the viscosity of passenger car motor oils falls we naturally want to set up a criterion for gear pitting performance for motorcycle applications to ensure the oil is fit for purpose.” Though Yashiro-san had hoped a gear pitting test would be included in the most recent update, he said a gear pitting test was not included because “we noted that oils are not the sole cause of gear pitting – engines and gears can also influence this phenomenon. That makes it quite difficult to develop a test which can evaluate the gear pitting performance of the oil alone while establishing any correlation with field or engine test performance.”

“Recently, Yamaha has been putting more focus on High Temperature High Shear viscosity (HTHS) and we are using this when evaluating oil performance for engine durability, including gear pitting. MCO HTS viscosity is not being lowered as much as that of passenger car engine oils, where HTHS needs to be 2.6 or higher” Yashiro-san said. “We knew that returning to a 2.9 HTHS oil would improve the engine durability, but we decided to continue our races without encountering any critical problems.”

Unfortunately, color is not a way to distinguish between the two types of lubricants. Because mineral base oils are less refined than synthetic base oils, mineral base oils contain more aromatics, sulfur, and other impurities. These impurities tend to give mineral oils a darker natural color than synthetic base oils, which are nearly transparent. Though this may be a distinguishing factor for base oils, additives can considerably darken the motor oil once they are incorporated into the finished product. Therefore, unfortunately, there is no reliable way of differentiating between mineral and synthetic motor oils in the field.

One prime example is the VX-12 additive technology included in TOP 1 Oil HP Plus. VX-12 utilizes tri-moly molecules, which are metallic and very dark. Therefore, even though HP Plus uses a synthetic-blend base oil that is nearly transparent, the VX-12 additive package gives the finished HP-Plus product a dark color.

The final way to distinguish between mineral and synthetic oils is to put them to the test of time. Over any time interval, synthetic lubricants will last longer, keep the engine cleaner, and prevent the engine from corrosion better than mineral lubricants. Of course, the differences will be more pronounced the longer the test interval.

In conclusion, though you may not be able to visibly distinguish mineral oils from synthetic oils, your engine always will be able to.