We came up with a way to show the effectiveness of our oil program to the non maintenance people in our plant. We added up all of our three-part ISO particle count numbers and divided it by the number of pieces of equipment that we routinely sample. This gave us a plant-wide average oil cleanliness. This number means nothing by itself. But every quarter we recalculate this number using our latest sample results. We use it to show how our oil has become cleaner as we began to routinely filter it and took other actions to reduce contamination. Everyone can now see that our oil program is having a positive effect. (Bill Jacobyansky, Maintenance Manager, Guardian Industries)

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Book Bits: Bearing Lubrication Tips

From the book "Basic Handbook of Lubrication"

Overpacking probably accounts for more bearing failures than any other single factor. If too much grease is present, internal friction can cause the temperature to rise, causing oil separation and oxidation of the base fluid, resulting in premature bearing failure. As noted earlier, the relubrication interval and the amount of grease used during relubrication depend entirely on the application. When lubricating a bearing in a housing without a grease vent plug, do not rupture the seal. Once this seal is ruptured, external contamination will be free to enter the bearing, and the seal’s ability to hold the grease in the housing will be lost. Note that common grease guns can generate up to 100 MPa (15,000 psi) pressure.

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QUESTION: The best way to control particle contamination is to remove particles as fast as they come in. True or False?

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"Why aren't all lubricants formulated with antiwear additives?"

Lubricating oils should be carefully selected for specific applications and not haphazardly applied. The dominant wear mechanism and environmental contaminants and hazards that are expected or known to occur in a piece of equipment should be known and countered by an effectively designed lubricant formulation including base oil type, viscosity and additive package.

Heavily loaded components should be protected first by viscosity if possible, and antiwear or mild to heavy extreme pressure properties as needed. These additive packages all protect equipment from rapid mechanical wear at the cost of inducing some amount of chemical wear, relative to the aggressiveness (strength) of the antiscuff package. In lighter load situations, an over-aggressive lubricant can shorten equipment life through corrosive attack without providing any useful benefit.

Note that some synthetic basestocks (such as diesters) have some limited natural antiwear properties without causing surface degradation, and that some lubricity agents found in compounded oils are nonchemically reactive.

Adam Davis, Noria Corporation

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