What do you mean by basestock in an oil lubricants?

Question

What do you mean by basestock in an oil lubricants?

Answer 1

Basestock is the the oil before any additives.

Motor oils are made up of selected base oils combined with performance enhancing additives. Why are additives required?

• Additives improve the original properties of base oils

• Additives impart new performance characteristics to base oils (to suit particular applications)

• Additives help extend the product life

Motor oils typically are 75-85% basestock with the balance being additives. That’s why basestock quality is such a critical contributor to the performance of the final blended product. You’ll find out more about additives below.

There Are Four Different Types of Motor Oil Base Stocks

We know that basestock composition has a significant effect on the overall performance of motor oil. There are four different types of base stock used in the motor oil market today.

Group 1 - Conventional - Mineral oil derived from crude oil

Group 2 - Hydroprocessed - Highly refined mineral oil

Group 3 – Severe hydroprocessed - Ultra refined mineral oil

Group 4 – Full synthetics (chemically derived) - Chemically built Polyalphaolefins (PAO).

As it infers Groups 1 – 3 basestocks are derived from crude oil pumped from the ground whereas Group 4 basestocks are chemically derived, most often from ethylene gas, and contain none of the contaminants present in mineral oils.  Just as distilled water is pure water derived from gas so Group 4 basestocks are pure oils derived from gas.