Ron Jonkers' thoughts about setting up a world class lubrication program

More than 50% of mechanical failures are caused by improper lubrication. Therefore this makes lubrication the most underestimated and ill performed act in machine maintenance. Even nowadays there are a lot of people who think that machines can perform without any attention from the maintenance department, and in special from lubrication engineers. This is simply proven by the failure figures.

A machine not given proper attention will have a lifetime less than half of the normal operating lifespan, will have far more unexpected breakdown time, put out less than standard performance in terms of production per hour with less than acceptable quality.

Upper level management is aware of the problem, but might not know how to tackle the problem.  Maintenance departments are often stuck in some sort of status quo, and by that I mean that they use most of their time keeping up with the normal daily occurrences in their plants. There simply isn’t enough time to improve on maintenance strategies. Or people find the (lubricating) task at hand not interestingly enough.

One maintenance group leader put it this way: ``we employ a lot of technical graduates, but they don’t want to do the dirty work of lubrication. That’s not what they’ve been to school for``. Because basic technical schooling in the Netherlands is long since replaced by general basic schooling, good technical hand craftsman are hard to found.

On the other hand, the need for good educated basic technicians is growing since lubrication engineering is becoming a science in itself. Every day we learn more about lubrication, its basics, the specifics of oils and greases, synthetics, breakdown of the oil film, changing of viscosity – base number – acid number, contamination and so on.

To perform a world class lubrication program takes specially educated technicians. It takes reading a lot of study books, mechanical and chemical, even more articles, follow on-line courses etc. These days you can even apply for formal training and examination.

But to start a good lubrication program doesn’t have to be a very big problem. However the first rule is that higher level management, maintenance management and maintenance engineers agree on the need for such a program. If there is only one who isn’t convinced that a program will result in improved performance, better keep your money in your pocket. You first have to make sure that everybody will support the program and will perform to the best of their ability in putting the program in place. Remember that only one unmotivated engineer assigned with the lubrication task can corrupt the program.  So, convinced managers and highly motivated lubrication engineers can do the job.  Convincing arguments could be the reduction of (general) costs, downtime, quality rejects and energy demand, the last being the result of extra low friction lubs inspired by the Kyoto agreements on Co2 reductions and ISO 14001.  

The second rule is the strategy of lubrication and re-lubrication.  Simply changing oil in gear drives or pumping grease in bearings doesn’t do the trick. One should consider the state of the oil, degradation of additives and anti oxidants, change in viscosity, the amount of wear particles in the oil, bleeding of oil in grease, accumulation of old soap, how much grease is to be applied and how to apply it and more. Is the right grease or oil used, is there a better solution for this application or are we going to put the same grease in all the bearings, big or small, high or low rpm, under or over burdened? Also consider type of industry (HACCP, food contamination) and environment, inside or outside, heat, freezing cold, dust, vibrations, misalignment and production stop intervals to name a few.

The third rule is consideration of the tools to be used. Are you going to use fixed continuous re-lubrication systems, oil filtration, hand pumps, oil analysis and ultrasound technology.  If a handgun is used, beware of dirty grease ports. Can you guarantee uncontaminated refills of fixed continuous re-lubrication systems or oil reservoirs? (think of dust, flying product particles, leaks)

A final consideration is: Is enough grease or oil going into the bearing, or not? For instance, when relubricating electric motor bearings, or any other bearing for that matter, how do you know when to stop pumping or when to stop the automatic cycle?  For a long time now lubrication engineers used supplier information on how much re-lubrication at what intervals should be applied.

Ultrasound technology on the other hand provides a certain way of knowing the answers to these questions. Re-lubrication while hearing the grease flowing into the bearing’s raceway gives the conviction that grease has arrived where it should arrive. Based on manufacturer’s guidelines and the results of trending the bearings for some time, grease quantities to be applied can be determined. Also, when hearing that a bearing doesn’t need grease, don’t! By doing this, condition based re-lubrication starts to take place as part of the re-lubrication program. This is true for any rotating component!

Ultrasound is the result of friction. This friction causes low energy ultrasonic waves. These waves will not travel far from the source, and can’t be heard by the human ear.  The ultrasonic signal is picked up by a sensor and heterodyned to a signal the human ear can hear. By simply listening via a headphone to any rotating equipment you hear the ultrasonic signal of the component. Some instruments can store the readings taken for data trending purposes. Since an increase in ultrasound over time is a strong indicator of increased wear this phenomenon can be used to say something about the state of the component listened to, whether that is a bearing, a gear drive or other rotating component in any machine. A slight increase in ultrasound can also be a good indicator that the component needs relubrication. After relubrication the sound level should drop back to the historical level measured earlier. If not, the very beginning of failure is detected. And when you know this, you can choose to further analyze with vibration techniques, start intensified lubrication countermeasures, or simply start ordering a replacement component.

There are a lot of considerations to be made and a lot of planning to be done before a lubrication program can be put into place. The more the facts are known before starting the program, the better the program turns out to be and the quicker the program will have beneficial results. 

A good program, highly inspired engineers and the right tools are a guaranteed means to reduce production and maintenance costs, unexpected production stops, quality non performances and will lead to beating the competition.