Cork grease

Last updated

Cork grease is a lubricant for woodwind and reed instruments such as saxophones, clarinets, bassoons, and oboes. These instruments are designed to be disassembled into parts for easy storage and portability, and the joints between parts feature cork seals. Cork grease is used on these seals to ease and lubricate instrument assembly, avoiding damage to the cork and the instrument's barrel. Cork grease also acts as a preservative, keeping the wooden cork moist and thick, in turn ensuring a good seal between parts of the instrument so that no air may leak through the joints upon playing. Cork grease can help woodwind players adjust their instruments' tuning pieces (e.g. barrels, necks, bocals, staples) in respect to their pitch. [1]

Cork grease is made with ingredients such as elm extract, organic sunflower oil, coconut oil and hemp seed oil.[ citation needed ] In the past it was made from animal fat. It is probably not toxic to humans.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

A lubricant is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, transporting foreign particles, or heating or cooling the surfaces. The property of reducing friction is known as lubricity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bearing (mechanical)</span> Mechanism to constrain relative movement to the desired motion and reduce friction

A bearing is a machine element that constrains relative motion to only the desired motion and reduces friction between moving parts. The design of the bearing may, for example, provide for free linear movement of the moving part or for free rotation around a fixed axis; or, it may prevent a motion by controlling the vectors of normal forces that bear on the moving parts. Most bearings facilitate the desired motion by minimizing friction. Bearings are classified broadly according to the type of operation, the motions allowed, or the directions of the loads (forces) applied to the parts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cocobolo</span> Type of wood

Cocobolo is a tropical hardwood of Central American trees belonging to the genus Dalbergia. Only the heartwood of cocobolo is used; it is usually orange or reddish-brown, often with darker irregular traces weaving through the wood. The heartwood changes color after being cut and can be polished to a lustrous, glassy finish; being quite dense, sometimes having a specific gravity of over 1.0, it will sink in water. The sapwood is a creamy yellow, with a sharp boundary between it and the heartwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synthetic oil</span> Lubricant consisting of artificially made chemical compounds

Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially modified or synthesised. Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be synthesized from other raw materials. The base material, however, is still overwhelmingly crude oil that is distilled and then modified physically and chemically. The actual synthesis process and composition of additives is generally a commercial trade secret and will vary among producers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">O-ring</span> Mechanical, toroid gasket that seals an interface

An O-ring, also known as a packing or a toric joint, is a mechanical gasket in the shape of a torus; it is a loop of elastomer with a round cross-section, designed to be seated in a groove and compressed during assembly between two or more parts, forming a seal at the interface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stopper (plug)</span> Conical closure used to seal a container

A stopper, bung, or cork is a cylindrical or conical closure used to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube, or barrel.

The Western concert flute is a family of transverse (side-blown) woodwind instruments made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a “flautist” in British English, a “flutist” in American English.

Silicone grease, sometimes called dielectric grease, is a waterproof grease made by combining a silicone oil with a thickener. Most commonly, the silicone oil is polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and the thickener is amorphous fumed silica. Using this formulation, silicone grease is a translucent white viscous paste, with exact properties dependent on the type and proportion of the components. More specialized silicone greases are made from fluorinated silicones or, for low-temperature applications, PDMS containing some phenyl substituents in place of methyl groups. Other thickeners may be used, including stearates and powdered polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE). Greases formulated from silicone oils with silica thickener are sometimes referred to as silicone paste to distinguish them from silicone grease made with silicone oil and a soap thickener.

Grease is a solid or semisolid lubricant formed as a dispersion of thickening agents in a liquid lubricant. Grease generally consists of a soap emulsified with mineral or vegetable oil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balmer Lawrie</span> Central Public Sector Undertaking

Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. (BL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking and a conglomerate under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It is classified as a category-I miniratna company. Originally founded in 1867 by George Stephen Balmer and Alexander Lawrie in Calcutta, British India, the conglomerate has eight strategic business units, four joint ventures in India and abroad, and a subsidiary in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valve oil</span> Lubricant for brass instrument valves

Valve oil is a lubricant for valves of brass instruments. It is typically mostly mineral oil with a small amount of other ingredients, although synthetic oils are increasingly available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ball joint</span> Spherical bearing most commonly used in automobile steering mechanisms

In an automobile, ball joints are spherical bearings that connect the control arms to the steering knuckles, and are used on virtually every automobile made. They bionically resemble the ball-and-socket joints found in most tetrapod animals.

Jupiter Band Instruments, Inc. is a manufacturer and distributor of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments. Jupiter was established by its Taiwanese parent company KHS in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ground glass joint</span> Used in laboratories to easily assemble apparatus from parts

Ground glass joints are used in laboratories to quickly and easily fit leak-tight apparatus together from interchangeable commonly available parts. For example, a round bottom flask, Liebig condenser, and oil bubbler with ground glass joints may be rapidly fitted together to reflux a reaction mixture. This is a large improvement compared with older methods of custom-made glassware, which was time-consuming and expensive, or the use of less chemical resistant and heat resistant corks or rubber bungs and glass tubes as joints, which took time to prepare as well.

Pipe dope is any thread lubricant, thread sealing compound, or anaerobic chemical sealant that is used to make a pipe thread joint leakproof and pressure tight. It is also referred to as "thread compound" or "pipe thread sealant." Although common pipe threads are tapered and therefore will achieve an interference fit during proper assembly, machining and finishing variances usually result in a fit that does not result in 100 percent contact between the mating components. The application of pipe dope prior to assembly will fill the minute voids between the threads, thus making the joint pressure tight. Pipe dope also acts as a lubricant and helps prevent seizing of the mating parts, which can later cause difficulty during disassembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grease fitting</span> Metal fitting used in mechanical systems to feed lubricants

A grease fitting, grease nipple, Zerk fitting, grease zerk, or Alemite fitting is a metal fitting used in mechanical systems to feed lubricants, usually lubricating grease, into a bearing under moderate to high pressure using a grease gun.

Dry lubricants or solid lubricants are materials that, despite being in the solid phase, are able to reduce friction between two surfaces sliding against each other without the need for a liquid oil medium.

GS Caltex Corporation is a South Korean Energy and Chemical company jointly owned by Chevron and GS Group. The company was founded in May 1967 as the first private oil company in Korea. The company changed its name from LG-Caltex Oil Corporation to GS Caltex Corporation in 2005 as part of the GS Group split from LG Corporation. GS Caltex exports petroleum, petrochemical, and lubricant products to 57 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schaeffer Oil</span> US oil company

Schaeffer Oil is a privately held, U.S. company, which operates under the name Schaeffer Manufacturing Company. Schaeffer manufactures specialty lubrication products, including oil additives, friction modifiers, and synthetic oils, greases and other compounds. Its products are marketed directly by the company to end users in industries including construction, mining, agriculture, manufacturing, trucking, marine, and high performance racing. As of 2017, the company had domestic and international sales in excess of $150 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Firearm maintenance</span>

Firearm maintenance is a series of routine preventive maintenance procedures aiming to ensure the proper function of a firearm, often with the use of a variety of specialized tools and chemical solutions. Typically such maintenance is performed by the firearm owner using either simple methods such as cleaning the firearm with oil or other cleaning solutions or more sophisticated practices such as lubricating moving parts with oil/grease and recoating exposed surfaces with protective finishes such as varnishing or bluing.

References

  1. "Cork Lubricants". March 2006. Archived from the original on 2017-10-07. Retrieved 2017-03-25.