There are many challenges presented when developing a lubricant for a refrigeration compressor. Introducing refrigerant to the lubricant can result in a mixture that has divergent properties. Additionally, optimizing a refrigeration compressor lubricant is a great undertaking due to the various temperatures, pressures, refrigerant chemistries, and system designs. This paper summarized different procedures to screen potential lubricant candidates as well as presented the unique devices required to perform these screen tests. The different screen tests are coupled, as their results must be analyzed in parallel. However, the limitations of these methods were also presented. Results from this research asserted that final evaluation for a lubricant must be an actual compressor test, as the refrigerant/lubricant interaction must be taken into account. Lastly, this study discovered some promising additives that may be a suitable replacement for the current state-of-the-art anti-wear additive.
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