Originally Posted By: GMorg
The nanolubes don't remind me of "snake oils". Instead, they remind me of chlorinated paraffins. They can clearly work as advertised. However, without user abuse, what else will they do, in a negative sense. Maybe nothing...
+1 (although some here would call all CP's snake oil too).
here is some other info on NANO technology that I posted a while back in another thread:
Quote:
Nanotribology is a relatively new field of study (the big seminars hosted by the STLE started in 2009 and there is still a lot left to be discovered in the field. Because of how slow moving the oil industry is for change, I don't see widespread adoption of the possibilities for at least another 5 years.
Nanoparticles are synthesized molecular structures that are formed to produce specific results. So far silicates and borates have proven to be the most effective bases for the structures, however there is still more research that needs to be done.
This Article represents some of the major challenges that we are facing in the development of these new technologies.
This one talks about some of the advantages in reducing friction by using some nano opportunities
The biggest issue in this area, besides the lack of complete research, is cost. There are companies (like Millers) who have developed some impressive technology and has decided to take it to market, but unfortunately the way most of the "majors" see things is if it is good enough to meet the basic specs, and can make us lots of money, then that's the ideal choice. They don't care if they are actually the best technology, they just use very good marketing strategies to make sure the customer perceives them as the best.
Also, even when this technology gets adopted the majors' marketing departments are going to try to keep it a trade secret - just look at what castrol has done with titanium particles, they've turned it into a marketing game, which even though the technology may be better (not yet proven), none of the other majors can make any kind of push in that direction without being labelled as copycats.
I think that we will see products come to market (some good and some bad) just like we have with other OTS additive trends. Eventually it will either get accepted by the masses or rejected as snake oil. Most of them will be really expensive to start out with... only time will tell.