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Articles: Lubrication

Even I Can Understand That! Equipment Lubrication Made Simple

By Paul Llewellyn

My company recently hosted a Top Performers Meeting to which we invited our top ten lubrication consultants from the previous year to a getaway destination for relaxation, fun, fellowship, good eats and roundtable discussions.

During a roundtable discussion on lubrication best practices, Dave Piangerelli, owner of Lubrication Technologies, Inc. of West Springfield, Mass., mentioned that lubricating equipment was a difficult task. I made the mistake of asking, “What’s so difficult about lubricating equipment?”

Grease-ology

By Kristopher Sonne, Trico Corporation

Grease selection is an important yet often overlooked part of many plant lubrication programs. It is common for plants to have in stock one coupling grease, one motor grease and one general purpose grease for everything else. The general purpose grease may be the proper grease for some applications but definitely not all. Selecting greases should be given the same care as selecting oil and not treated like the black sheep of the lubrication family.

Helpful Hints to Increase Reliability Through Lubrication

by Brian Thorp, CLS, MLT II

You always hear about establishing goals, setting ISO code cleanliness, getting some training, setting up an oil analysis program, and all the other things you need to do to have a successful lubrication program.  In a perfect world we are set and ready to go.  Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but really there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ plan out there.  So let’s have a practical discussion about some of the methods and equipment that can be used to achieve, and then maintain, our vision.

Increase Pump Uptime, Decrease Costs With Water Management System For Mechanical Seals

by Chris Rehmann

Rising cost and shrinking availability of clean water for operating industrial pumps are of concern to many plant managers, as is as the high cost of treating this water for disposal.  For over a half-century, the accepted method of providing cooling and flush water for mechanical seals and packing has been to pipe plant water through the seal or packing, and then to drain.  Under this scenario, the normal consumption of water is 1.7 million gallons of water per pump, per year. 

INDUSTRIAL BEARING MAINTENANCE MANUAL

The Timken Company is pleased to make the Industrial Bearing Maintenance Manual download (PDF) available to Reliabilityweb.com visitors.

Industrial Lubricants Reduce, Re-use & Recycle

By: Charlie Lee of Oiltech Australia
MINIMIZING THE DRAIN ON YOUR BUSINESS
Industrial Lubricants - Reduce, Re-use & Recycle

Summary

While lubricants are a relatively minor cost for many production operations, the cost associated with unscheduled break down of equipment as a result of lubricant failure can be significant. For example, an unexpected outage of a power station due to malfunctioning of a hydraulic control system would be extremely costly. 

It is therefore necessary for users to ensure that the condition of the lubricants in the equipment is always within operational specifications. 

Like many industrial components, over 80% of lubricants are being disposed of prematurely. Adhering to some simple guidelines can significantly extend the useful life of most lubricants resulting in reduced consumption, extended machine life, and minimized unscheduled shutdown maintenance.

Lubrication Excellence at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

At the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), the oil sampling and analysis program has evolved since its inception during the plants start-up in the early 80's. The program has used on-going aggressive improvement plans and program audits, while implementing many of industry's best practices. As a result, progress reports show low equipment failures, increased awareness of Pro-active Maintenance initiatives, and station support from the craft level to executive level management.

Maintenance of Hydraulic Systems

The right way to perform maintenance on a hydraulic system utilizing the Maintenance Best Practices

Most companies spend a lot of money training their maintenance personnel to troubleshoot a hydraulic system. If we focused on preventing system failure then we could spend less time and money on troubleshooting a hydraulic system. We normally accept hydraulic system failure rather than deciding not to accept hydraulic failure as the norm. Let's spend the time and money to eliminate hydraulic failure rather than preparing for failure. I worked for Kendall Company in the 1980's and we changed our focus from reactive to proactive maintenance on our hydraulic systems and thus eliminating unscheduled hydraulic failure. We will talk about the right way to perform maintenance on a hydraulic system utilizing the Maintenance Best Practices.

Mixing Oil & Water Part 2: Strategies for Removing Water

By Mark Barnes

Water is a pervasive contaminant. Present in all but the most arid environments, the impact of water on equipment health and machine reliability can be devastating. In Part 1 of this article (Feb/March 2011), we examined the impact that water has on both the lubricant and its ability to support dynamic loads. In Part 2, we'll look at how we can control moisture under even the most extreme conditions.

Mixing Oil and Water: A Recipe for Downtime!

By Mark Barnes, Vice President - Reliability Services, Des Case Corporation

While conventional wisdom would hold that oil and water don't mix, in reality, they do! Even clean, dry oil can hold minute amounts of water in the dissolved phase. Dissolved water can be thought about in the same terms as water vapor in the atmosphere.

Not Just Good, But Great

By Jason Kopschinsky, CMRP

In the past decade I have played a role in implementing dozens of lubrication programs all across North America. Though the facilities themselves differ, the fundamental elements of what makes a good lubrication program great remain the same. It's not enough to simply say that we want to apply lubrication best practice; the goal needs to be adopting best practice and making it the company's preferred practice based on the unique conditions in which the plant operates. Some of these conditions may be environmental extremes, production extremes, labor issues, skill issues, financial limitations . . . the list goes on. A good machinery lubrication program tries to apply lubrication best practice. A great machinery lubrication program takes best practice and creates a change in corporate culture through training, proper storage and handling, discrete procedures, and minor modifications. These fundamental elements will take you from good to great.

Oil Mist Lubrication for Positive Displacement Blowers

Looking Into The Mist by Heinz P. Bloch, P.E.

A reliability engineer was trying to explore the viability of a project to equip a number of Roots-type rotary lobe blowers with oil mist. He had looked up a number of web-based papers, OEM manuals, and a relevant text ¹.

 

 

Optimizing Lubrication Practices

Tips for the Modern Manufacturer

by Mike Johnson, CLS, MLT, CMRP

Statistics provided by bearing manufacturers regarding grease lubricated bearing reliability are not flattering for maintenance organizations.  As shown in Chart 1, the failures from controllable parameters outnumber the uncontrollable parameters by 9:1.

Procedure for establishing an effective Oil Analysis program

Oil is often times known as the bloodline of industrial facilities. Defining oil in this manner definitely emphasizes the importance it has on the health of equipment. So just how much do you know about your oil?

Simple Steps to Hydraulic System Maintenance

“Are you spending money on hydraulics training and not seeing results?”

By Ricky Smith CMRP

Most companies spend a lot of money training their maintenance personnel to troubleshoot a hydraulic system every year and yet continue to receive the same results. If we focused on preventing system failure then we could spend less time and money on troubleshooting a hydraulic system. We normally accept hydraulic system failure but it is important to remind yourself that hydraulic failure is not the norm. Let’s spend the time and money to eliminate hydraulic failure rather than preparing for failure. I worked for Kendall Company in the 1980’s and we changed our focus from reactive to proactive maintenance on our hydraulic systems and eliminated unscheduled hydraulic failure. Join me as we talk about the right way to perform maintenance on a hydraulic system utilizing the “Maintenance Best Practices”.

 

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