Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1399684
www.machinerylubrication.com | July - August 2021 | 7 Simply looking at the viscosities of the greases is enough to be concerned about. What is typical in an industrial plant is for the same lubricant to be used in most greased bearings regardless of load, speed or environment. is means the overhung fan operating at over 1,000 RPM will be getting the same grease as the conveyor bearing operating at 100 RPM. Selecting a multipurpose grease will undoubt- edly lead to a less-than-optimum lubricating film in many cases. So, we need to become more diligent in specifying what grease to use in each application. While this may require the use of more greases onsite, the equipment will be more reliable and operate with a higher degree of efficiency. Often, greases are over-consolidated because of a people problem, not a lubricant problem. ere are ways to avoid the cross-contamination of greases, and most of them center around the training of your lubrication team. We also need to have a more technical specification for the greases we are going to use, rather than generic terms that allow purchasing to drift away from our original product. Writing a grease specification should consider all the unique aspects of the grease to ensure if our supplier changes, we can still get the same level of performance from the next lubricant. Some items to consider in your grease spec for each piece of equipment are: • NLGI Grade • ickener Type • Base Oil Type • Base Oil Viscosity • Dropping Point • Water-Wash Resistance • EP Characteristics • Oxidation Stability • Pumpability • Rust Protection Other properties unique to the application should be considered in addition to this list. e NLGI is also working on expanding the specification and getting a standard in place that can begin to address the deficiencies in this area. e new standard will attempt to break down this category into more distinct grease formulations to handle more stressful appli- cations such as high water, load, saltwater and prolonged life. ese future classifications will be more granular and allow for a tighter toler- ance than what is currently the market norm. While there are options available to reduce the number of greases in use, careful thought and consideration should be employed to avoid the over-consolidation and subsequent sub-op- timum lubrication for these grease-lubricated components. After all, not all greases are the same, regardless of what the description may lead you to believe. ML About the Author Wes Cash is the Vice Pres- ident of Services for Noria Corporation. He serves as a senior technical consultant for Lubrication Program Development proj- ects and as a senior instructor for Noria's Oil Analysis I and Machinery Lubrication I and II training courses. He holds a Machinery Lubri- cation Engineer (MLE) Machine Lubrication Technician (MLT) Level II certification and a Machine Lubricant Analyst (MLA) Level III certification through the International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML). Contact Wes at wcash@noria.com. ML