Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1080534
8 | January - February 2019 | www . machinerylubrication.com wants to see leave but who no longer wants to endure the physical strain of maintenance work. Both of these strategies are prevalent in industrial maintenance departments. However, just because something is common doesn't mean it is the right thing to do. Lubrication Isn't Simple Lubrication suffers from the fallacy that it is simple. Yes, the task of injecting grease into a bearing is simple and can be taught in a few minutes. Changing oil is even easier. Untrained people do it on their cars, tractors, motorcycles and everything else all the time. I can see why HR professionals might think that a minimally experienced individual or someone on his or her farewell tour should be your lubricator – they just don't know any better. Maintenance professionals shouldn't have that excuse. The Demand on Industrial Equipment ere's a significant difference between the demand that's put on your personal vehicle and the demand that is placed on industrial equipment. For example, a car engine that lasts for 200,000 miles is consid- ered an achievement. Now, if this engine was averaging 10 miles per hour whenever it was turned on, then this would mean that the car ran for 20,000 hours or 2½ years of non-stop runtime. In contrast, a piece of industrial equipment is still considered new when it is 2½ years old. A car has its oil changed every 5,000 miles, which is equivalent to 21 days of runtime for industrial equipment, but you expect your plant equipment to last for 20 years or more and go six months to a year between oil changes. To achieve this long life, you must maintain your industrial equipment differently than the amateur maintains his vehicle. Lubrication looks easy because most sites do it poorly in that they only do part of the job. Changing the oil and regreasing equip- ment is the final step in the process and not the only requirement. ere's a lot of tech- nology in grease and oil, and understanding it well enough to make the right decisions cannot be done in a one-hour lunch-and- learn with your local lubricant vendor. Salaries Easily Justified At a plant where I worked, there was a fan on a glass-tempering line that would dramat- ically fail at least once a year. We monitored it daily with vibration and infrared, and every- thing would look great, but then it would suddenly fail and destroy itself. ere were design flaws in the setup of the line that were imposed by space constraints, which violated manufacturer specifications, but this could not be reversed. Our lubrication technician, who had a Level II certification and was on his way to achieving his Level III certification, was sure it was a problem that could be solved with the correct lubricant application. We all scoffed at his idea and tried several other solutions. Fortunately for us, he was not deterred and eventually solved the problem by switching to a grease designed for high-stress applications. is strategy wasn't on anyone else's radar and would not have been possible without his dedication to his craft. e savings from that one triumph paid for his salary for as long as the line was in operation. I don't think a young kid without any equipment knowledge or a soon-to-retire mechanic who is biding his time until retirement would have been as effective. ere were plenty of other success stories, but this incident was the most dramatic. Our lube tech took us to the point where we were starting to see incipient failures in the oil analysis results before we saw them through vibration readings or infrared inspections. Now, I may be singing to the choir when I say it takes intelligence, time and dedication to learn how to be a good lubricator, but it also requires a lot of hard work and tenacity to build and maintain a good lubrication program. I can't see a program like this being built and maintained by someone with little to no equipment background who is eager to move out of the position and into a better paying maintenance technician role or someone who is looking at retirement in the near future. Of course, there are people in those situations who have done the job well, but I don't think you can bank on that being the most likely result. Lubricants Require Special Care When I talk about oil, I call it the lifeblood of the machinery and emphasize to mainte- nance technicians the care that needs to be taken when receiving, storing and transferring it. Most people don't get it. You can see them transferring oil in an open can that they leave sitting on a shelf in between uses. e effect of even a soft particle like cotton is alarming when it is put under the stress of a ball in a high-speed bearing or between two gears. So, what do you think all the harder dust particles that float around in the air can do? In most industrial facilities, the inability to sample oil correctly or even to set up proper sampling ports is widespread. Grease has its own set of complications. It faces greater temperature extremes and is often more exposed to the environment in its application. e possibility of mixing incom- patible greases in the field is also a problem that frequently is not even recognized as a risk. Training people how to manage a lubrica- tion program can be a difficult task when they are surrounded by experienced team members COVER STORY