When inspecting equipment oil levels or performing oil changes, pay close attention to the sight glasses. There have been cases where the sight glasses have been stained, thus giving an appearance of lube oil from a few feet away. This false reading has resulted in lack of lubrication failures. In the case of a liquid level gauge, remove the glass tube and clean it using an appropriate cleaner. If the stain cannot be removed from the glass, replace it.

Note: In emergency cases when a new liquid level gauge cannot be located, simply flip the glass tube and install the clean side down. (Michael W. Istre, Maintenance Reliability Engineer, CITGO Petroleum Corproation)

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Book Bits: Optimizing Lubrication Tasks

From the "Lubrication Excellence, Reliability World, Lean Manufacturing 2006 Conference Proceedings"

From the paper "Executing Procedure-Based Lubrication":

Tasks should be optimized relative to machine criticality/reliability goals, failure history, access for maintainability, available technology and skills, etc. While for a critical asset it may be necessary to develop and document lubrication practices as part of a detailed maintenance action plan based on a complete or partial RCFA and/or FMEA analysis, for noncritical assets, a simple plan such as weekly or monthly inspections may be adequate. Nevertheless, even the most basic lubrication tasks should be codified to insure consistency and continuity of task. The reasons are simple. Imagine ten different people being presented with the task "inspect the machine." Presented as such with no other information, it is highly likely that ten different results will ensue. "Inspect the machine" is not part of a series of quantifiable decisions such as:

Oil clean and clear? (yes/no)

Oil level correct? (high/low/normal)

Armed with such detail, each of the same ten people
should now perform the task "inspect the machine" the
same, each and every time, according to predefined
best practice, no matter who performs the task. This
is the essence and expectation for procedure-based
lubrication.

More information about "Lubrication Excellence, Reliability World, Lean Manufacturing 2006 Conference Proceedings"

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"Can you give me some advice on how to use a grease gun properly?"

When lubricating equipment with a grease gun, it is important to know precisely how much lubricant needs to be applied per cycle and how much lubricant the grease gun will produce per shot. Grease guns can produce between one gram and 1.5 grams per shot. This can result in significant overlubrication per point unless the output is known.

Grease guns are capable of producing several thousand psi per stroke. This kind of pressure can certainly blow out bearing seals and shields. If a careless approach is taken when using the grease gun, then it is highly likely that the equipment will be overpressurized and overlubricated. When this occurs, particularly with a bearing, then the likelihood that the bearing can see its rated lifecycle is greatly reduced.

Whether the gun is filled with oil or grease, the practitioner should be precise with the use of the gun, beginning with an analysis of the bearing dimensions and calculation of the required amount of grease per cycle, followed by an analysis of the amount of output per cycle of the gun.

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