APPLICATION RESEARCH IN INDUSTRY' FREDERIC I. MATTHEWS Monsanto Chemical Company, Merrimac Division, Boston, Massachusetts
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TERM "application research'' is one with which most of us are now familiar. However, not so many years ago the term was completely unknown. Chemical research in this country has traditionally been directed toward the developing of new compounds and the development of uses for these new compounds once they were known, or else the developing of new compounds with very well-known and advertised functional groups. In the last ten or fifteen years a whole new type of industrial research has sprung up which is covered by the term-application research. It is also sometimes known by its alias, industry research, and arises from the recognition of the need for certain properties or qualities in products which are used and the attempt to synthesize compounds or mixtures of compounds having these properties. It is differentiated from traditional chemical research by the fact that it is not necessary to a solution of the problem that the exact nature of the compounds so used be known or that they be of a single given composition. Perhaps the most striking difference between application research and the more traditional form of research is that pure compounds are relatively unknown in the field of application research. In other words, it is the snythesis of compounds which will do a specific job without being too fussy as to whether these compounds are identifiable or are discrete. Application research in industry is characterized by the need of large or medium scale testing facilities which duplicate the conditions to be found .in the industry toward which the research is directed. Ordinary chemical and physical tests are not su6cient to establish the utility of a product for the given application. In almost all cases this stems from a basic ignorance as to the fundamental physics and chemistry of the application and a need for fillmg the requirement without taking the time to find the fundamentals in-
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Presented before the 242nd meeting of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers, Lrtconia, New Hampshire, october 18. 1947. I
volved. However, as a corollary to application research, every industry which engages in it is also a t the same time trying to discover the fundamental principles involved in order to avoid complicated testing. In many fields of application research the final test is only in actual use; laboratory imitations of the field usage cannot be considered to give a h a 1 answer, and, moreover, chemical and physical tests cannot with certainty predict even what the laboratory tests will show. This leaves us in the position of relying on chemical and physical tests of products to show only that they are uniform and leads to dependence on uniform methods of synthesis and uniform raw materials for uniformity in applicability. I t also means that an intimate knowledge of the industry involved is necesmry for the correct solution of an application problem. The individual who wishes to solve an application problem must know just what is involved in the field usage contemplated. Most of us take an automobile for granted. We get in, turn on the ignition switch, step on the starter and expect to get away from there in the minimum possible time. However, the motor under the hood is an intricate piece of machinery and involves the sliding contact of metals moving at high speeds and high temperatures. In order to preveni scimre of these metals, it is cusiomary to include a lubricant. Some of us may have had the experience of what happens when the lubricant is absent. More broadly, however, the production of the proper lubricant for an automotive engine is a very good example of application research. With t i e and the development of more efficient automotive engines the requirements on lubricants became more and more severe. Oil distilled away from the more unstable portions of the crude was no longer satisfactory for lubrication. Greater and greater demands were laced on the lubricating oil until finally the natural iubricants were no longer able to satisfy the requirements. Then a whole new field of chemical additives to lubricating oil
MARCH, 1948
was opened up. These chemical additives were designed to improve one or more properties of the oil. For instance, the ability of oil to flow a t low tempera, tures is regulated by two things, one of which is the intrinsic viscosity of the oil. The other, however, is the crystallization of wax particles in the oil. The temperature a t which the combinedeffect of viscosity and wax crystallization causes the oil to become solid is known as the pour point and a whole group of chemical additives designed to reduce this pour point by inhibiting crystallization of wax has been developed and marketed. However, in this case, as in all other cases, laboratory tests for pour point are dependent on the temperature cycle used and no one satisfactory test has yet been developed. Therefore, the ultimate evaluation of pour point depressants must be in terms of field testing so that this is strictly an application research job and demands specialized knowledge,ofthe industry involved, since lubricating oils from different crudes respond quite differently to pour point depressants. Another factor which is of importance in lubricating oil is ability to resist deterioration and lack of tendency to corrode hard alloy bearings. Chemical additives have also been developed for the purpose of acting as antioxidants and corrosion inhibitors. In the case of antioxidants, again, actual field trial is the only satisfactory criterion of performance. However, in this case some improvement over that situation has been made during the war. Through the cooperative efforts of the oil industry, the automotive industry, and the Army, through the Coordinating Research Council, the 36-hour Chevrolet test was standardized as a means of testing oxidation and corrosion inhibitors. The test consists of placing a standard Chevrolet engine on a test block and mnningit under a known load and known speed for 36 hours. This is a very severe test and considerable question has been raised as to its correlation with field performance in the case of passenger cars. However, Army experience showed that lubricants which satisfactorily passed this test were satisfactory in the field, and if any criticism is to be leveled a t the t,est it is on the basis that it is too severe. In the case of antioxidants as in pour depressants, physical and chemical tests on the lubricants or on the additives to the lubricants themselves have no significance except as a control of quality. The problem of selecting the proper antioxidant is, therefore, an a p plication research job and it is again complicated by the fact that no two base oils seem to respond alike; so the problem becomes one of selecting the proper combination of blending stock and antioxidant. Another property of a lubricant that is considered very desirable is its lack of tendency to cause piston rings to stick. Sticking of the rings means loss of compression and eventual wear of the rings and complete breakdown of the motor, so lubricants which are resistant to ring sticking are desirable. In order to achieve this detergents (or dispersants) were developed. These are generally metal salts of organic or alkyl inorganic acids, and serve to keep the troublesome products of
combustion dispersed through the lubricant. The only really satisfactory test for such detergents or dispersants is the field trial. However, again in this case, the Army and the automotive and oil industries through the Coordinating Research Council, during the war dde veloped certain engine tests which could bemn on a test block and largely avoid the necessity for extensive field tests. Even these tests were not too simple. One of them involved running a single-cylinder Diesel engine for 500 hours on a test block. Monsanto, has used a shorter single-cylinder engine tes't to measure comparative detergency of oils containing these chemical additives. However, the field test is the final answer. But, as in all other lubricating problems, the base oil or blending stock introduces another variable. This again is a strictly application research job requiring an intimate knowledge of the problem in the field in order to be able to synthesize compounds which will satisfactorily meet the problem. The.final illustration from the lubricating field is concerned with gear oils. The development of more and more powerful trucks carrying heavier and heavier loads and the need for getting the maximum load on each possible truck during the war put a great strain on the lubricants used in the rear axles of these vehicles. The strain on the rear axle was so great that additives were absolutely required to enable the oil to hear the load. Again the types of materialsused cover a wide range and can be selected only on the basis of actual road tests or large-scale test-stand installations which simulate road tests. Physical and chemical tests merely maintain uniformity. Let us depart from the field of lubricants to one which isprobably morefamiliartoeveryone. Probablyeveryone will concede that it would be desirable to have fabrics that are resistant to crushing or creasing. Anyone who has made a long plane or train trip or packed clothes tightly into a bag has often wished for fabrics that would spring back to their original shape. Such materials have been developed. The property desired here is resistance to crush and can only be determined by actual test. Physical and chemical tests on the compounds merely maintain uniformity. Similar problems arise in the treatment of textiles to decrease shrinkage on laundering. The test is running through a laundry machine several times to determine. the amount of shrinkage. There are similar examples in the field of paper chemistry. It has long been recognized that paper which would not tear easily when it was wet would be a very desirable thing. This so-called wet strength can be achieved by incorporating chemicals or resins in the manufacture of the paper. But the test of their suitability is their actual performance, It would not be di5cult to run through a score of other cases of products which are commercially made today in large volume and which were developed through application research. Sufficeit to say that as long as we do not understand the basic physics of lubrication or know the basic chemistry of the composition of
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lubricants, so long as we do not understand the basic chemistry of cellulosic materials such as textiles and paper and so long as we do not know the basic chemistry of leather, then we will have to depend on application research for the production of products which will give us the quality we desire and we will have to develop and train chemists who are familiar with the industry they are working with; who, moreover, are as familiar with that industry as the people working in it themselves and can bring that familiarity hack to the laboratory for the synthesis of compounds or formulations which will meet the needs of the industry. We will also have to resign ourselves to the establishment of extensive testing facilities in order to evaluate the products of the lahoratory in terms of semi-large or largescale industrial applications and we will also have to admit that except invery rare cases, the only real criterion of satisfactory performance is actual field trial.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
Schedule 01 Meetings, 1941-48 March 27: St. Thorns Seminary, Bloomfield, Connecticut May 8: Malden High School, Malden Massachusetts (Annual Meeting) August 22-28: Tenth Summer Conference. University of Maine, Orono, Maine Note that the date of the meeting a t St. Thomas Seminary has been changed from April 3 to March 27. Officers for 1 9 4 7 - 4 8 Eldin V. Lynn, President, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Boston 15, Masse5husetts; Dorothy W. GSord, Sewelmy, Linooln School, Providence 6, Rhode Island; Lawrence H. Amundsen, Edilor of the Report, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut; Millard W. Bosworth, Immediale Past P~eaidat; John R. Suydam, Vim-President; Carroll B. Gustafson, Treasu~er; Leallyn B. Clapp, Southern Division Chairman; Helen Crawley, C m i ~ a Division l Chainan; Jean V. Johnston, Westm Diyision Chainan; Donald C. Gregg, Nwthern Division Chairman; Ralph E. Keirstead, Curator; Elbert C. Weaver, Chai~manof the End m m t Fund; S. Walter Hoyt, Audilor.
