In This Issue:

• Up Front: Are You Ready for AmazingProduct 2002?

• Book Bits: Grease Consistency vs. Application

• Today's Tip: Sampling Diesel Engine Oils
  

• Q & A: Water Contamination Remedies
  

Up Front

Are You Ready for AmazingProduct 2000?

Like everyone else with an e-mail address, you probably get your share of unwanted e-mails. I'm plagued with them all day long. I get everything from "How to Make People Line Up and Beg to Give You Money" to confidential e-mails from distressed Lithuanian millionaires wanting to transfer millions into my bank account. All they need is my account number!

You and I both know that these offers don't pan out. Quick fixes and silver bullets don't often exist in real life nor do they in the world of lubrication.

On the surface it might seem that converting to a synthetic or filtering your lubricants to hyper-clean levels might be the answer to all your lubrication problems. While there are obvious benefits of both, neither offers a comprehensive answer by itself.

A clean system won't stay clean forever and your new synthetic gear lube probably won't survive being topped-off with transmission fluid. Successful lubrication programs are just that - programs. They are planned programs involving skilled professionals, detailed procedures, precise schedules, appropriate storage facilities, correctly selected lubricants and filtration products ... I could go on all day.

Are you planning your lubrication program or just latching on to every new idea and product that you come across? With your plan in place, the next time you get a flyer in the mail for AmazingProduct 2002 you'll know whether it's for you.

Mike Ramsey
mramsey@noria.com

Book Bits

Grease Consistency vs. Application

From the book "The Lubricating Grease Guide":

Where grease is handled in a dispensing system, the grade chosen may be related more to the capabilities of the system than to the requirements of the application. In service, consistency differences are important. Consider, for example, the use of grease in a gear case. The grease should be carried into the meshing gear teeth, which are thus kept covered with lubricant. If the grease is firm, the gear teeth may cut a channel through the grease and run dry, causing damage to the teeth. Unless operating temperature is high, therefore, soft-to- semifluid greases are ordinarily recommended.

In ball or roller bearings, carrying grease to the rolling elements is considered undesirable, since that grease will churn, soften, heat up, and work its way out through the seals. Thus a common recommendation for a ball bearing is to have the bearing space only about one-third full of grease of firm consistency - often NLGI No. 2. If the bearings support a vertical shaft, the grease had best be still firmer - probably NLGI No. 3.

Click here for more information about "The Lubricating Grease Guide".

Today's Tip

• When taking oil samples from diesel engines:

  If the intent is to determine the health of the engine, the oil sample should be taken before the lube filter. Sampling before the filter insures that the sample will contain contamination that will indicate excessive wear in the engine.

  If the intent is to determine the quality of the oil fed to the engine, the sample should be taken after the filter. This is also a great way to validate that the filter is performing properly.

  NOTE: On engines with high oil flow rates where the sump volume is turned over three to five times per minute, there is typically very little difference in sampling before or after the filter. (Tip submitted by Greg Schmelz, Alfa Laval Inc.)

Each tip published will earn the sender $25. Click here to submit your tip.

Q & A

Water Contamination Remedies

"My oil analysis data indicates that there is water in one of my gearboxes. I have put a portable filter cart on the gearbox, but about every three hours the full indicator on the filter pops up. I have changed the filter twice and can't really detect the presence of that much water. Is it possible that my filter won't take the water out of the synthetic oil that I'm using?"

If you are using a standard filter for particle removing, then the answer is no, it will not remove water. However, if it is a water removing type filter (superabsorbent type) then these are useful for removing small amounts of emulsified and free water after accidental ingress.

If you have significant amounts of water, in excess of say 0.1 percent by volume, then you need to address the root cause of the water ingress and then dehydrate the oil or replace it depending on the volume. Too much water is subjective, but technically, if there is visible emulsified water (cloudiness of the oil), this is too much. As such, there is an ingress source that urgently needs attention. Typically water will be an issue dependent upon the unit location (indoors/outdoors), proximity to any process water, or any wash down activity that may take place near the gearbox, or any steam source in the vicinity.

The use of a dessicating breather or expansion diaphragm type sealed unit may also reduce the moisture ingress, as will deploying better quality seals, and educating the personnel responsible for wash-down activity.

Martin Williamson, Senior Technical Consultant, Noria UK Ltd.

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Lube-Tips is published by Noria Corporation. Oil Analysis and Lubrication Experts