Machinery Lubrication

Machinery Lubrication May June 2014

Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation

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REFINING LUBRICATION PRACTICES How the Sinclair Refinery Developed an Award-Winning Lubrication Program www.machinerylubrication.com | May - June 2014 | 9 By Jonathan Mcnees, sincl air W yoMing refining co. A little more than a year ago, the Sinclair Wyoming Refining Co. recognized the need to change its current lubrication practices in order to remain profitable and maintain its position as an industry leader. The task seemed daunting at first, but with guidance from Noria Corporation, great strides have been made in a short amount of time. The refinery is now approaching world-class status. One of the first hurdles Sinclair faced was ensuring the proper lubri- cant was being applied to each specific component of a machine. Prior to implementing program changes, the refinery had experienced cata- strophic failures of machines due to cross-contamination of grease and oils. By evaluating each machine and its lubricant requirements, Sinclair is more able to provide the exact lubricant for each lube point. The refinery also began to carefully review its current lubricants, looking for areas of overlap or for one or more lubricants with the same performance characteristics. This consolidation effort reduced the facility's inventory from 34 total lubricants to 19. Not only did this help mitigate the risk of cross-contamination, but it also improved the quality of lubricants in storage by reducing storage time. Now if the need for a new lubricant arises, equipment specifica- tions are checked against all lubricants on hand. Lubricants are designated to ISO 6743 in order to quickly classify the oil type and additive package. By matching these ISO classifications, Sinclair is able to maintain its consolidation efforts, and the total number of lubricants can be kept as low as possible. Lubrication Program Design In designing a new lubrication program and developing thousands of new procedures, the refinery had to determine the types of tasks that would be performed for each machine type onsite. To avoid the one-size-fits-all approach of maintaining equipment, Sinclair looked at Photos by Ardent Photography

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