Unfortunately, the current state of the pandemic in California make it impossible and commercially impractical to hold a meeting in Napa Valley in June; however, we hope to hold a meeting in Napa Valley in the future. While we know we can deliver an excellent virtual meeting experience, our recent survey data states that NLGI members would love to meet in person – provided it is safe to do so.
December 2020
Potential key lithium salts classification as REPROTOX CAT 1A
Dear All,
As you might have been informed recently, there is a proposal by the EU to classify a number of key lithium salts (lithium chloride, lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide) as reproductive toxicants CAT A1. This is based on a proposal by the French member state representative, ANSES.
The lubricating grease industry is a key user of lithium salts. A possible classification might lead to significant disruptions in the supply chain of lithium or lithium containing mixtures.
For the grease industry the implications could be severe as almost 80% of all lubricating greases used (and produced) currently on a global basis are lithium containing.
These include and are not limited to:
- The way lithium as a raw material is handled in-house by grease manufacturers.
- The classification of products depending on any residual LiOH contained in the final product.
- The implications to the industry of having a grease thickener of this importance classified.
The ELGI would like to reach out to all stakeholders within the grease industry to jointly work together in developing a position paper (white paper) that would focus on the above aspects. This would also be a useful tool in communicating the above proposal to down-stream users of our products in a consistent and objective manner.
In addition to this, the group would collate information that could be especially useful to the Lithium consortium that is carrying out the advocacy work in this case with the ECHA, in order to present the socioeconomical impact of classifying or ultimately banning the use of Lithium salts for the grease industry.
As the lithium consortium will require some information by the end of Q1 next year, I would appreciate if you could provide your intention to participate in the group by the end of the year.
Kind regards
Andreas Dodos
ELGI, Director
ERGTC, Chairman
Eldon’s SA, Product Stewardship
NLGI Launches High-Performance Multiuse (HPM) Grease Certification
Media Release
December 2, 2020
Last year, NLGI began the advancement for a new High-Performance Multiuse (HPM) Grease Certification.
HPM Webinar November & December 2020
Asian lubricant industry group announces new Council for 2020-2022
Registration Now Open
Click HERE to Register
Great news! For additional value, NLGI’s leadership decided to incorporate education courses into Technical Week. Education courses include our renowned Basic and Advanced Grease Courses, see details below: