Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1005929
10 | July - August 2018 | www . machinerylubrication.com COVER STORY you need someone on your team who under- stands this problem and is qualified to review and eliminate it from happening. Developing a Lubrication Program To proactively address the single most common cause of unreliability, you need to develop a lubrication program. To start a lube program, you must understand that there are several different substances that can be used to lubricate a surface. e most common are grease and oil. e selection of the proper grease should be done with the utmost dili- gence to address all equipment needs. Many manufacturers sell inferior grease, and the thickening agent and oil separate. is leads to lubrication-based failures, because once the oil separates, the grease loses its protective quality. I have seen organizations use extension hoses to make grease points easily accessible. is can be a machine killer, depending on your grease. You need to know the amount of time the grease will sit in the line based on the frequency of application and the amount. e wrong grease will allow the oil to leach out of the thickening agent, and all you will be providing the lubricated asset with is the thickening agent, devoid of oil. What would appear to be a great idea to an uninformed organization could be a self-inflicted wound. Decision-making When making the decision to under- take any project, you must understand what constraints you have. e constraint can be displayed as a triangle. A graphical represen- tation of this decision-making is shown on page 12. One leg of the triangle is cost, the next is time, and the final one is quality. e middle of the triangle is traditionally risk. I like to look at these projects with an eye on the opportunity and not the risk. All projects have associated risk and opportunity. Your job is to look at the risk and mitigate it to the best extent possible, or to look at the opportunity and maximize it. My recommendation to all organizations is to never compromise on quality. For me, the decision on how to approach the project comes down to cost and time. If cost is the determining factor in your organization, then it will take more time. e reverse is also true: if you want results in a quicker timeframe, then the costs will increase. e decision on costs and time needs to be made by looking at the opportunity. Organizations that keep their eye on the opportunity will gain an advantage over their competitors. Partnerships ere are some distinct steps necessary to achieving a lubrication program that will deliver the desired results. You need to build a business case by determining the costs of benchmarking your site, gathering data, and designing and implementing the program. e first step you must take is to benchmark where your organization is today. If you don't have the internal resources to conduct this bench- marking or time is an issue, collaborate with an outside subject-matter expert who has the expertise to help you pull together all aspects of a lubrication program. Organizations that make the mistake of allowing their lubrication provider to do any of this work without verification do so at their own peril. Every case that I have seen where the provider was also in charge of design ended with substandard results. Providers will offer free studies and other services which are enticing to organizations that do not know better and are budget-driven. If this is the path you take, you should save your money. Few providers have qualified representatives to accomplish what is needed. Without a quali- fied reliability leader in your organization who knows the difference, you will not achieve the desired results. The Goal e goal of your lubrication program is to keep your equipment clean, cool and dry. For every 10 degrees C or 18 degrees F, you increase or decrease the component life by 50 percent. If you have the right program storing, handling and delivering the best lubricants to your equipment, you can do more with less just by changing your lubricant suppliers. Contamination Contamination can be segmented into the contamination of your lubricants and spare parts (specifically in their storage and handling), and the physical contamination of the equipment, caused by poor housekeeping. Again, it is relatively cost-effective to get your teams to perform housekeeping and store your lubricants and spare parts correctly. However, it can be difficult to achieve if your leaders lack the necessary skills to lead their teams. Poor housekeeping is a direct representation of a lack of leadership, so addressing this problem should be focused on your leaders, not their teams. Before For proper lubrication, you must store, handle and deliver the best lubricants to your equipment. After