Back in the early 1990’s it was NASA’s Cape Canaveral that had the problem, not Housten. The Engineering Department detected a fault in the lubrication system of its gargantuan crawler-transporter. This is the mammoth mobile launch platform that carries the assembled rockets from the assembly shed to the launch pad.
It is just a four-mile trip at speeds no greater than 1mph but with fully assembled rockets the journey was causing excessive wear and tear on the crawler, AND, significant environmental damage. The lubricants that NASA had been using, apart from not providing sufficient wear protection, were also significantly and polluting the wildlife sanctuary lose the causing. Made from petroleum distillates and a heavy metal called Molybdenum, they were entering the ground water and causing pollution to the wildlife sanctuary around the Kennedy Space Centre.
When the EPA raised their concerns about this NASA approached X-1R and asked them to produce a non-toxic, biodegradable lubricant that could effectively outperform the Molybdenum lubricants they had been using.
After extensive testing by NASA engineers X-1R was proven to be superior to any other lubricant available and was adopted as the lubricant of choice for the crawler. Since 1994, every time the crawler takes a space vehicle to the launch pad it is lubricated with X-1R CTL.
Kevin Cook, the director of a non-profit organisation called the Space Foundation which promotes space awareness, happily reported that “They have definitely seen a difference in the performance of the track unit. A reduction in operating noise, smoother operating and of course less wear and tear.” X-1R also passed all the necessary requirements set by the EPA.
All X-1R products contain a fully synthetic Extreme Pressure (EP) agent that out performs any natural agent when it comes to heavy loads and extreme speed. These include polyalphaolefins and synthetic ester from renewable sources that have class beating antioxidant characteristics. What this means is the oils into which they are put have better ability to overcome friction and resist oxidation.
This means you get less wear and tear, gain increased efficiency and the oil will remain within specification longer, in fact much longer, giving the user a quieter, cooler and more efficient operation and thus extending the life of the vehicle.
X-1R is still in use at the Kennedy Space Centre thirty years after its introduction, a record they are justifiably proud of. If it works for them, don’t you think it would work for you as well?
