In This Issue:

• Today's Tip: Right-sizing Bearing Lube Lines

• Book Bits: RCM for Centralized Lubrication

• Lube-Trivia: Which VI is High?

• Q & A: To Mix or Not to Mix

Today's Tip

Right-sizing Bearing Lube Lines

• When running lube lines to out-of-reach bearings, run your tubing out of 3/8-inch diameter tubing instead of 1/4-inch. It requires less pressure on your grease gun to push the grease through a larger opening than a smaller one. You are also less likely to overpressurize the tubing. Before making your final connection to the bearings, purge your line with the specified grease of lubricant beforehand. Then connect the fitting to your bearings. (Spencer Anderson, PDM Tech, A.E. Staley. Thanks Spencer!)

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Book Bits

RCM for Centralized Lubrication

From "Reliability-Centered Maintenance II"

Sealed-for-life components and centralized lubrication systems have become the norm in most industries. This has led to a massive reduction in the number of points where a human has to apply oil or grease to a machine, and a massive increase in the consequences of failure (especially the failure of centralized lubrication systems). From the analytical viewpoint, this means that it is now cost-effective to:

• use RCM to analyze centralized lubrication systems in their own right

• consider the loss of lubricant in the few remaining manually lubricated points as individual failure modes

More information about the book "Reliability-Centered Maintenance II"

Lube-Trivia

Which VI is High?

Test your knowledge and prepare for ICML lubrication and oil analysis certification with Lube-Trivia.

QUESTION: Which of the following would have the highest viscosity index (VI)?

• PAO

• Hydrocracked mineral oil

• Solvent refined paraffinic

• Phosphate ester

For the answer, visit: http://www.lube-tips.com/trivia/20031015.asp

Q & A

To Mix or Not to Mix

"Is it all right to mix an R&O hydraulic oil with an AW hydraulic oil in a hydraulic application?"

Mixing oils with different additive packages is never recommended. Doing so could compromise the additive performance of both constituents, cause corrosion of component surfaces and lead to increased mechanical wear. And trending of some oil analysis properties will be compromised.

In a pinch, if the oils are the same viscosity, you may be able to get away with mixing for a short time. If you must mix the oils or live with an accidental mixture until the next scheduled outage, take the following precautions:

1. Visually inspect for signs of sludging, poor demulsibility and foaming.

2. Increase the frequency of oil analysis to spot abnormal wear, corrosion or lubricant degradation.

3. Flush and change the oil as quickly as possible. A drain leaves 5 to 40 percent of the old oil in the system, therefore a flush will need to be performed.

4. Keep up the frequent inspections and oil analysis to be sure that the oil stabilizes.

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