PlanetSafe Lubricants History
PlanetSafe Lubricants History
Co-founder Clyde G. Ritter was both a machinist and a pilot. Between flights he would do his own maintenance on his aircraft.
It was not always easy. He repeatedly encountered issues with his engine prematurely wearing down and causing fail points. Being a machinist, he took it upon himself to build the engine he needed himself, testing and trying different hardware.
He developed and patented his own improved aircraft engine components, specifically cam and lifter systems.
His goal was to engineer metal parts resistant to the “cracking, breakage, and wear that plague conventional lifters due to harsh temperature and impact conditions.”
Those upgraded systems were eventually put into service, becoming industry-standard hardware.
They still failed him. Frustrated, he began researching friction reduction for the first time.
Even though the hardware was improved, the lubrication protecting it still could not handle that level of stress. Lubrication science hadn't caught up - yet.
Years of research and development followed. The work centered on increasing the protective capabilities of both fuel and oil systems. This effort led directly to the granting of a lubrication patent in 1996: a bio-synthetic formula explicitly designed to provide “performance improvements under high pressure and high temperature conditions” while being “less toxic” than chlorinated additives.
That patent became the technological foundation of PlanetSafe Lubricants and its signature OT Oil Treatment.
The company was formed in St. George, Utah, by Clyde G. Ritter and Thomas M. Quigley, PhD. Together, they combined decades of technical expertise and real-world experience to expand those original treatments into other formulas, creating the AiM Extreme Duty line of penetrating lubricants.