When retrofitting gear boxes for service and filtering, consider using stainless-steel piping instead of black iron piping. After a rather short period of time, the inside of the black piping begins to crust and flake off into the gearboxes, giving false testing results. This is more predominant in high humidity and frequent wash-down areas. Jeffery May, Machine Lubrication Tech., Tate & Lyle

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From the book "Lean, Reliable and Lubed 2007 Proceedings":

An excerpt from the paper "Elevating the Status of Lubrication Personnel and Its Effect on Reliability":

Lubrication personnel have extended knowledge that the reliability team should take advantage of to create and improve maintenance practices and procedures.

By tapping this source of knowledge, the success of the lubrication and maintenance program is increased and this, in turn, reinforces lubrication personnel’s self esteem and value to the reliability program. Lubrication personnel will test the procedures and route paths each time they perform a preventive maintenance task.

Each of these tasks is an opportunity to improve. When changes must be made, the technician can mark up a copy of the route plan in the field and review the suggested changes with the lubrication team for agreement. These changes could include:

• Type of lubricant
• Amount of lubricant
• Adding equipment to the list
• Removing equipment from the list
• Changing the steps in the route procedure

More information about "Lean, Reliable and Lubed 2007 Proceedings"

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Question: Define how the beta rating is calculated.

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"We are constantly debating the issue that one cannot accurately particle count new fluids because of additive interference. This is particularly true with 15W40 diesel engine oil. The VI improvers and others argue that the dispersants seem to be the main issues. Do you know of a process to eliminate this interference in order to accurately particle count this oil or multigrade new fluids?"

You are right, some additives can interfere with the particle count. Perhaps the biggest offender is the silicone defoamant, which is not dissolved in the fluid but rather suspended as microglobules in the 5 to 10-micron range.

Some additives, like detergents, are not properly dissolved at ambient temperatures, and heating the oil to 180°F before performing the particle count will improve the solubility of these additives (but still not do anything for the defoamant). The use of Group II mineral base stocks, which have poorer additive-solvency properties than Group I oils, unfortunately compounds this problem.

Performing a particle count via particle imaging can overcome some of these additive interferences. As second option you could try a pore-blockage particle count, but realize that you won't get 3-digit counts and also the results likely won't correlate with the optical particle count. Otherwise, just live with it - recognize that it happens and as long as you follow the same particle-counting procedure every time, you will have trendable results. Use a known-clean sample to set your baseline.

Watch for a report in an upcoming issue of Practicing Oil Analysis Magazine which investigates this subject in more detail.

Ashley Mayer, Noria Corporation

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