Silca announces a New Carcinogenic Wonder Lube – Silca Anti-Seize
Josh Poertner, the owner of Silca, recently published a video on YouTube where he hailed his new wonder product as better than grease. He claimed he was inspired to use this product after having toured the Rolls-Royce Aerospace facility in Indianapolis.
Aerospace Grease designed for 1500C
In the video, he described his new “Lubricant” called Silca Anti-Seize as having superior properties to those of grease. He commented that joints between dissimilar materials would potentially lead to galvanic corrosion – especially between aluminium and Titanium/Stainless Steel. The product he is marketing is “Aerospace” grade Nickel grease which he claims has been sourced from the same suppliers as Rolls-Royce. He claimed that his 12g tube “only costs $22” whilst the same tube “delivered to Rolls-Royce was $250 because of the added paper trail”. He produced a galvanic series chart and claimed that Nickel was the best material for the job because it was in the middle of the galvanic series.
The video was full of misleading information and neglected to highlight some key points. He claims that gas turbine engines require nickel grease because of dissimilar metal (galvanic) corrosion. Gas turbines operate at very high temperatures, 1500C+, turbine entry temperatures exceeding the melting point of the turbine blades. The primary reason for using nickel-based grease is due to high temperature and not to repel moisture. At that temperature and pressure, water would become superheated steam.
His comments around bolt fasteners and the application of grease to reduce the torque variation are largely irrelevant because most critical HT (High temperature) fasteners on Gas Turbine engineers are tensioned using other means – such as hydraulic or pneumatic tensioning.
Some practical guidance on grease is available here
Carcinogenic and Toxic
Further, he completely fails to mention the moves to outlaw nickel-based grease as it has been found to be carcinogenic. In California, items with nickel in them are required by law to be labelled as carcinogenic (See warning triangle label below). In this application, nickel is in high concentrations and is not a trace element; it could easily be ingested via hand transfer. Public Health England lists nickel as highly likely to be carcinogenic. In professional applications, users are normally required to wear gloves to handle this product, yet Silca’s packaging omits that detail.
This packaging and the Silca website do not list the technical standard to which the grease is made. This is usually an ASTM or MIL standard.
Silca Anti Seize is extremely expensive, it retails at £22 ($24USD) for ~10g. (12ml) A comparative product that has the same properties can be bought for £22 for 500g. See here.
Silca’s Response and the right to reply
Josh from Silca wrote the following
Hambini turns $30 of industrial bearings and aluminum bar stock into $300 bottom brackets so I assumed he’d be proud? Also we literally tell you exactly what it is, where we found it in use, and that we don’t directly make it, so if you want to go sleuthing about and find something similar for cheaper, (though that price you’re quoting is for nickel-graphite which is quite a bit cheaper) go ahead.. I mean we essentially build you a roadmap in the video. Anyway, these syringes are sold in aerospace and light aircraft for $75-100 per syringe in bulk and as much as $200 per syringe as singles. As for cancer, well those NTN bearings that Hambini loves so much carry the identical California prop 65 cancer warning when sold here in America: https://ntnamericas.com/ca-prop-65/ @Hambini, not sure if you sell many BB’s to California, but you are technically breaking the law if you sell them into California without this prop 65 statement clearly stated on the packaging.
Josh Poertner, Silca Aeromind LLC
Josh claimed that Hambini (Hambini Engineering) was breaking the law by selling bottom brackets into the US without a Prop65 warning on them. This is factually incorrect as it would require the business to have more than 10 employees. He did not address the high levels of nickel in his lubricant and chose to direct the conversation towards bottom brackets made of “$30 industrial bearings and aluminium bar stock”.
In other comments, he claimed that viewers of the Hambini Engineering YouTube channel were sycophants.
Josh gets defensive when Hambini REAMS!
Just be mindful of ego-friendly comments and their effects on you, especially the ones that praise you and simultaneously attack your opponents, they can feel nice but are of the least valuable varieties.
Nevertheless I am interested in seeing where this goes.
So if you had more than 10 employees you would have to have the same warning because your product is equally as bad? I’m not sure the point you are making with that statement seems like a technicality on how many employees you have not what’s in the product.
That is correct. But… in this context, nickel grease is readily absorbed. Nickel in a bearing or other metallic object such as coins is not. The warning stays the same, the risk doesn’t.
This is bizarre. I bought a 14g tube of Permatex nickel anti-seize a couple of years ago from RockAuto, a major US-based online auto parts vendor, for just over $2. I was overhauling my car’s intake and exhaust and got it for the exhaust manifold studs as they screw into the cylinder head as they’re subjected to high temps and regular silver and copper anti-seize have lower max temp ratings. I also have a Ti frame bike so I figured that I could use it for that as well, to prevent galling and such. $24 for 10g? That’s nuts.