Even as a baby, colors mean something. Usually, we associate boys with blue and girls with pink. Colors are used to decorate, convey messages, entertain, and stimulate. For example, red is usually associated with heat while blue is associated with cold or water. This is also true in the chemical industry when it comes to grease. Although researchers agree that colorants do not improve grease performance color matters to consumers.
Grease doesn’t normally start out blessed with nice colors, usually it almost cloudy clear to dark brown shade of beige. So, why go through the work to add color if it is a doesn’t improve the quality? Well as we mentioned before, colors can convey messages and when greases are colored differently this can let the end user know what to use it for. This is especially helpful in environments where multiple different greases are being used. Some greases may also be a certain color as part of the manufacturers branding.
Adding colorants to grease doesn’t improve them and consumers like them, but they also add challenges for manufacturers. Research has begun showing that the overuse of colorants may impact grease properties in a negative way. For example, to make grease white the most commonly used whiteners are titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. However, the overuse of these whiteners may increase wear and oil bleeding when used in high concentrations. Challenges with quality is not the only challenge that color affects. Grease manufacturers report that about 50 percent of their complaints about their grease products come from the end user believing that they aren’t the right color. If the grease isn’t the same shade as the grease they were previously using this may cause the consumer to think there is something wrong with the grease.
Although colorants don’t improve grease and can offer challenges, the ease with which colors are used to convey messages is a hard thing to pass on. The benefits of this may mean that colors in grease are here to stay.