Machinery Lubrication February 2012

Featured Article

Jim Fitch, Noria Corporation

Machines fail for a reason. They’re not supposed to wear out. Humans are at the root of the vast majority of these failures. It’s also humans that can intervene and restore plants to healthy and...

Paul Michael, Milwaukee School of Engineering

It is widely recognized that contamination creates problems in hydraulic fluid power systems. The explanation is straight-forward - minimizing the gaps or clearances between moving parts improves...

Wes Cash, Noria Corporation

To combat the ingression of particles into oil systems, breathers are often attached to reservoirs and other oil storage components. Whether they are connected to an expensive piece of machinery or...

Suzy Jamieson, International Council for Machinery Lubrication

A recent Machinery Lubrication survey of lubrication professionals in the United States revealed some interesting trends and also shed light on just who is taking care of our lubricated...

Jeremy Wright, Noria Corporation

Field tests are some of the most overlooked, yet valuable tools that lubrication professionals can have in their arsenal. Most field tests are quick, inexpensive, simple to conduct and yield great...

Copper readings can be particularly alarming when increases are in the hundreds of parts per million. However, huge increases are typically insignificant in terms of component wear....

Brendan Casey

My son Benjamin turned 9 last month. For his birthday, we bought him a new mountain bike with all the bells and whistles: front shocks, rear mono-shock, front disc brake and 21-speed...

Noria Corporation

Oil analysis provides a huge payback when deployed through a proper strategy. While an extremely valuable tool in today’s reliability programs, it is sometimes applied in an ad-hoc manner....

Noria Corporation

Vegetable oils can be used as lubricants in their natural forms. They have several advantages and disadvantages when considered for industrial and machinery lubrication. On the positive side,...

Lawrence G. Ludwig, Schaeffer Mfg. Company

When storing grease and even during use, a certain amount of oil bleed will develop. Although it is common, the rate at which this bleeding occurs can be controlled through proper storage and usage techniques. Before looking at these strategies, it is important to understand the basics of grease and the types of oil release that can take place.

Name: Fernando R. Balboa Age: 61 Title: PDM Lubrication Oil Analysis Tech Company: Alcoa Location: Point Comfort, Texas Years of Service: 40 years   Fernando Balboa...

Jane Muller; Robert Errichello

Although a comprehensive on-site gearbox inspection is desirable in many situations, there may be constraints that limit the extent of the inspection such as cost, time, accessibility and...