Many smaller gearboxes have a fill hole and a drain plug. The only way to tell if the gearbox has the proper amount of oil is to unscrew the fill plug and stick your finger in it. To improve this process, replace the drain plug with a sight glass. This makes it easy for anyone walking by the equipment to notice if there is a problem with insufficient oil.

At the same time, because you no longer need to open the fill cap regularly, replace it with an appropriate breather or quick-connects (on both the fill port and drain) to add oil or deploy offline filtration. (Bill Jacobyansky, Maintenance Manager, Guardian Industries)

Send your Spanish-speaking employees for Machinery Lubrication Level I training in Spanish on June 26-28, San Antonio, Texas.

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

Question: Name three contaminants that can reduce oil viscosity.

Get the answer.

"Do you feel that it is necessary to agitate oil that is stored in larger containers such as drums to avoid a situation where some of the critical additives may settle in the bottom of the container?"

It is quite possible to agitate or mix the oil in a drum to redissolve additives, but if you are aware that additives have settled out of the oil, you should seriously consider returning the drum (or any container) of oil back to the supplier.

With the exception of certain gear oils which contain solid suspended EP additives, most additives in lube oils are liquids which easily dissolve into the base oil with a little heat and mixing during the blending process. A few additives may be in the oil as a suspension, silicone-based antifoam additives are an example, but they should not settle out under normal circumstances.

If an additive is placed into the oil at too high of a concentration, the excess amount of additive could settle out particularly at colder storage temperatures, but again, this would not be considered normal. The type of base oil used in the finished product will also have an impact on the additive solubility and thus any separation and settling. Group I base stocks being one of the best at dissolving additives and PAOs being at the poorer end of the scale.

In the end, it is the manufacturers responsibility to supply a stable product. Send it back. The equipment that we operate, and the downtime, is too expensive.

Bob Scott, Noria Corporation

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