Environmentally friendly lubricants are in demand. This also applies to forestry work with chainsaws. In this area, even the use of biologically harmless oils is mandatory everywhere. By design, the lubrication of the chain is what is known as “loss lubrication” and the lubricant ends up on the forest soil, together with the saw dust. Unfortunately in former times this application was used as a cheap and secret way to dispose waste oils. Thankfully this is not done any more today. Usually the basis for modern chainsaw lubricants are vegetable oils (e.g. rapeseed oil), which we all know from preparing delicious French fries in our deep fryers at home. However, this vegetable oil still lacks essential components to withstand the violent stresses that occur when a chainsaw is used.

Both the individual joints of the chain links and the guide groove in the sword are subject to constant wear and are heated by friction. At the tip of the guide bar the lubricant faces strong spinning forces which may centrifuge the lubricant away even before the chain gets in contact with the tree trunk. So the balance between low lubricant viscosity for smooth running conditions, and high lubricant tackiness to withstand the spinning forces is very difficult to adjust for the lubricant developer.

After usage of the chainsaw comes the next requirement for the traces of lubricant still remaining on all surfaces of the device. Special additives have to prevent the polymerization of the unsaturated ingredients of vegetable oils. If gumming or polymerization happens, an extensive cleaning of all machine parts has to be done prior to the next usage – this is totally unacceptable in modern forestry where cost effectiveness and efficiency are dominating the business.

According to the German „Federal Office for Agriculture and Food“ the annual consumption of chainsaw lubricants in the German forestry is more than 6000 mt per year. As already mentioned above, each and every kilogram ends up as lost lubricant together with the sawdust on the forest soil. Even without access to worldwide statistical data, you can imagine the enormous quantities of chainsaw oils emitted into nature in densely-wooded regions with intense forestry all around the globe. A very good biological degradability as well as toxicological harmlessness for plants and animals is mandatory for all ingredients of such a lubricant. LANXESS started the development of environmentally friendly lubricant additives for the usage in environmentally critical applications many years ago. Today we offer a comprehensive portfolio of products like Additin® RC 2317, Additin® RC 3890 or Additin® RC 4810. These products exhibit outstanding technical performance and are all environmentally friendly and nontoxic at the same time. Ideally suitable for the formulation of a wide variety of bio-lubricants.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.2 billion in 2018. The company currently has about 15,500 employees in 33 countries and is represented at 57 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.2 billion in 2018. The company currently has about 15,500 employees in 33 countries and is represented at 57 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.

Cologne,Month dd, 2020

This company release contains certain forward-looking statements, including assumptions, opinions, expectations and views of the company or cited from third party sources. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause the actual results, financial position, development or performance of LANXESS AG to differ materially from the estimations expressed or implied herein. LANXESS AG does not guarantee that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does it accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the opinions expressed in this presentation or the actual occurrence of the forecast developments. No representation or warranty (expressed or implied) is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, any information, estimates, targets and opinions, contained herein, and no liability whatsoever is accepted as to any errors, omissions or misstatements contained herein, and accordingly, no representative of LANXESS AG or any of its affiliated companies or any of such person's officers, directors or employees accept any liability whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from the use of this document.