Machinery Lubrication August 2023

If you could find an investment that guaranteed a return 40 times greater than your initial investment, you probably wouldn’t pass it up. According to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, that’s exactly the return organizations can expect when they invest in quality lubricants and best-in-class lubrication practices.

Varnish is defined as the matter that precipitates from a lubricant and collects on surfaces. If this material accumulates on components, such as servo valves, or within oil systems, it can lead to maintenance and reliability headaches. While progress has been made in learning how to test oil to show its varnish potential, challenges and information gaps still exist.

A successful lubrication program must start with contamination prevention. Most people acknowledge that contaminated lubricants cause accelerated wear, thermal damage, premature wear out, and catastrophic failures of the capital assets that are crucial to the continued reliability and sustainability of their manufacturing and process plants.

In this installment of our Task-Based Training series, we’ll show you the proper way to regrease a bearing using a standard grease gun.

In contrast to preventative oil changes at a pre-set interval, an oil-analysis routine involves periodic sample and analysis of lubricant to identify contamination before the symptoms appear in the machinery.

In this episode, Dr. John Ross with Maintenance Innovators joins Wes to discuss a topic commonly overlooked in the industry — the role of the storeroom in reliability. Join Wes and John as they chat about this crucial topic that plays a vital role in a facility's lubrication program and its overall reliability strategy.

Lubrication Excellence is a catalyst for many things, including remarkable machinery reliability and increased productivity, but it can also benefit employees beyond the day-to-day work in the plant. Retirement is the goal of the vast majority of the workforce, and with the baby boomer generation at that age, retirement plans are being put to a stress test.

Establishing a collaborative relationship with a lubricant supplier is essential for your quality control program, and the monitoring of oil beginning from initial receipt at the warehouse is crucial in preventing potential catastrophe later down the road.