Unit of Oil

A "unit" of oil is defined by the American Bowling Congress (ABC) and Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) as 0.0167 cubic centimeters of oil evenly spread over a 1 sq. ft. surface, which equates to a film of oil about 7 millionths of an inch thick.

Example: a piece of typing paper is about 400 units thick. (.000007*400=.0028" A 16# bond paper is .0032" thick so that's pretty close.)

Units are a calculated measurement based upon the ultraviolet (UV)additive that is in lane oil. The UV additive allows the optical lane reader to “see” the oil and measure how thick it is.

Units of oil should not be confused with volume of oil.