The structure of grease via electron microscopy and image analysis

Many of the insolubles that are essential to the structure of lubricating greases are too small to be usefully imaged in the optical microscope. The higher resolution of the electron microscope is necessary to examine the thickener and additive morphology that contribute so much to the performance of modern greases. However, the high vacuum requirements of these instruments mean that the oil component of grease should not be introduced into the microscope at ambient temperatures. Techniques have been developed to remove the oil prior to examination, or to reduce its vapour pressure to a negligible level. A number of such techniques which have proved to be of value for both the scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) microscopes are described and illustrated. The distribution of the thickener fibres can now be measured and analysed by an image analysis procedure from the images of freeze‐fracture TEM replicas.