What could happen in the event of incompatibility between different lubricants?

Incompatibility between two oils can cause a physicochemical reaction between the base oils or a chemical reaction between their performance additives:
- The reaction between the base oils can lead to the formation of two phases, or a complete degradation of the base oils, with their viscosity becoming impaired. This results in a major modification of the properties of the fluid and pronounced reduction in the performance of the oil feed.
- The reaction between performance additives may generate deposits. These deposits can cause a significant reduction in the filterability and/or increased foam from the mixture of the two oils, and a general drop in the performance of the oil feed.

In these two cases, this degradation of the properties of the lubricant can cause accelerated wear of the equipment and lead to a shut down or even a breakage of the installation.
It is therefore mandatory to perform careful flushing when changing lubricants.