Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/431954
ML ML www.machinerylubrication.com | November - December 2014 | 11 AGCO is a global agricultural machinery manufacturer with five factories in Brazil that produce tractors, combines, sprayers and implements. The maintenance department in Canoas had the goal of increasing the availability and reliability of its equipment machining and assembly line as well as reducing machine down- time, especially those stoppages caused by lubrication failure. In 2012, it was apparent by the condition of the lube room that something needed to be changed. It was common to see unmarked oil drums, grease drums without lids and mixing of different types of lubricants caused by a lack of identification on packaging. Lubricant consumption was also high, as many oil changes were made to compensate for the cross-contamina- tion occurring in the lube room. In early 2013, after an analysis of the maintenance group and an audit of the lubricants in use, an action plan was developed to implement best practices and training of the lubrication staff. This would lead AGCO Brazil to a model of world-class lubrication. The organization's team of lube technicians received training on lubrication practices, which enabled these professionals to perform tasks with the highest quality standards. A new lube room was built to solve the problems of contamination and lubricant blending while also improving cleanliness. The current lube room incorporates storage tanks with a filtering system to ensure a higher oil cleanliness level along with color-coding to identify lubricants and storage containers to prevent the mixing of different lubricant types. Every machine's lubrication point also has a nameplate that indicates the correct lubricant for each application. Today, oil sample reports show that the contamination problems have been resolved. Oil consumption has also decreased, as it is no longer necessary to change oil prema- turely. This allowed AGCO to achieve a cost savings of $30,000 in 2013. An absolute filtration system was designed to improve the oil cleanliness level. AGCO's new lube room offers access control. AGCO Brazil The current storage system employs color-coding. The previous lube room had several sources of oil contamination. Before After After After