Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1463313
report the status of various aspects of the program to upper management. 2. No training in lubrication best practices ose expected to handle daily lubri- cation activities and other reliability tasks cannot properly do so if they don't have the required knowledge and skillset. A failure to understand the lubricants or the lubrication-based tasks can lead to confu- sion regarding the proper handling and storage of lubricants. us, we see lurking lubricants left scattered around the plant as well as being mislabeled and misused. Lubrication personnel, especially those with ownership of the lubrica- tion program, must be provided with training if they are to do their job well and communicate to others the pitfalls of unintuitive and often overlooked lubrica- tion practices and procedures. 3. Lubricants not managed by store- room clerk e storeroom is often managed by a dedicated person or team in a controlled area, this includes accountability on what is brought in and sent out and what the inventory minimum and maxi- mums need to be. When lubricants are included under storeroom management, then there can be some benefits namely, keeping inventory controlled so that lubricants don't simply get taken without that removal being tracked. On the other hand, lubricant selec- tion decisions should not be made by the typical procurement personnel often associated with the storeroom. It takes a careful analysis of machine requirements, environmental conditions and operating variables to properly identify the right lubricant, with the cost of the lubricant being secondary. Even when an alternate lubricant shows viability and there is a temptation to switch to save money, there can be more costly consequences if not done with the right maintenance considerations. It becomes a lurking lubricant poised to create problems. You cannot assume the two lubricants with similar application intents and perfor- mance properties will be compatible with each other if mixed together within a machine. 4. OEM-based selection With the many variables that go into selecting the right lubricant, it's easy for some to defer to the OEM to determine which lubricant is right for each machine. While this is important to consider, it certainly is not the only variable. Additionally, using certain COVER STORY - LUBRICANT SELECTION 10 | March - April 2022 | www . machinerylubrication.com