Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1522439
60 Machinery Lubrication Annual Edition | www . machinerylubrication.com LUBRICANT PROPERTIES Mitigate Risk and Potential Issues in Your Plant with the Right Lubricant-Change Program Under pressure to be more competitive, c ompa n ie s m a ke strategic decisions to change their lubricant supplier. Better products, services, and lower costs are the incentives for the change. However, the idea of changing a lubricant supplier, especially after staying with the current supplier for a long time, can be daunting. Besides the high switching costs, the uncertainty over its impact in the short term can make it tempting to put off many opportunities that can be gained from a new supplier. Understanding the risks and potential issues with changing lubri - cants can alleviate these concerns. The risks can be categorized as performance, compatibility and application. Mitigating these risks will ensure a successful and seamless changeover process. Performance Risk One of the key risks of changing lubricants is the quality and perfor- mance of the new oil. e new lubricant could be inferior and have weaknesses compared to the current lubricant, which can lead to reliability issues. You want the new oil to have at least the same or better performance than the current oil. The first step to managing this risk is to review your equip- ment lubricant requirements and establish a baseline or minimum performance. Your first reference must always be OEM specifications. You must also consider operating conditions such as load, tempera - ture, speed, materials and duty cycle of lubricating components in your machines. You can then match those requirements with the new oil supplier product offerings. Most companies choose the easier way by getting equivalents to the current lubricants rather than reviewing the machine require- ments. Although quicker, this is not advisable. is practice assumes that the current product is the right lubricant for the machine. Some- times this is not the case. Also, the matching lubricant may not necessarily be a direct equivalent in terms of specifica- tion and formulation. Reviewing machine lubricant requirements can avoid any potential mistakes or using and less-than-optimal lubricant. Besides convenience, compa- nies prefer to go on the product equivalence route because they do not have good records of machine lubricant specifications and opera- tional requirements. All they have is a historical purchase record. Conducting a review of the lubrica- tion requirements is an opportunity to establish a master reference of what your assets need. Oil suppliers can claim that their oil is approved under certain industry bodies or OEM standards. As the First Seen in Machinery Lubrication, January 2024 Aaron Said | International Lubricant Distributors (ILD) A N N U A L E D I T I O N "When standards cannot be verified, you may have to rely on the credibility of the oil supplier. Is there a justification to trust them?"