When rolling element bearings are lubricated from oil held in a sump, attention to the oil sump level indicator could help extend bearing life and reduce bearing temperatures due to churning and metal-to-metal contact from oil starvation. As a general rule, the lowest rolling element should be half covered with the oil, when the bearing is stationary. This may seem like a simple rule to observe, but it is suprising how often it is completely overlooked!

Join us in New Orleans for Machinery Lubrication Level I training on September 22-24.

From the book "Practical Plant Failure Analysis"

As every reliability professional has seen, another area where the value of failure analysis commonly isn't utilized involves the practice of routinely scheduled outages. Should maintenance be scheduled based on the position of the sun or the moon and end up with monthly or annual outages? What is the real difference between a scheduled outage and a breakdown? The need for maintenance has to be recognized but in many cases the time between these "scheduled failures" can be greatly lengthened by analysis of the need for the various phases of the outage. We have never seen a situation where, after a competent and detailed analysis, the time between outages hasn't been increased by at least 50%.

Read more about "Practical Plant Failure Analysis"

Test your knowledge and prepare for ICML lubrication or oil analysis certification.

Question: What type of wear in gears and bearings is controlled by using EP (antiscuff) additives?

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It's hard to justify focusing on things that aren't yet broken when your maintenance staff is hog-tied, fixing the things that have broken. When breakdowns occur not much else gets done until things are up and running again. This article explains how to transition from reactive to proactive maintenance.
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• FluidScan Handheld Lubricant Condition Monitor

• Super Absorbent Filtration for Removing Water from Oil

SEPTEMBER 2009

Machinery Lubrication I
22-24 New Orleans, LA

Reliable Plant 2009
1-3 Columbus, OH

Análisis de Aceite Parte II
16-17 , Madrid

Analista de Lubricantes de Maquinaria (MLA-I)
22-24 Coatzacoalcos, Ver.

Mantenimiento Predictivo y Lubricación
15-16 , Buenos Aires

Tudo Sobre a Lubrificação de Máquinas
15-18 São Paulo, Brazil