Machinery Lubrication September 2008

My wife often asks me why I still do consulting work. She wonders why I happily leave the comfort of my office to crawl all over hot, dirty, smelly hydraulic equipment. For starters, I actually...

When we think of contamination in lubricated systems, we often focus on particle and water contamination. The fact of the matter is that there are many other contaminants we should consider and...

This article investigates an air breather installed on the oil reservoir for lubricating a gearbox and discusses its capacity to capture the oil fog generating from the reservoir. The author...

In 2000, I was asked to take a position in a lubrication program that the rotating equipment reliability (RER) group of my company wanted to start. My background included 30 years as a machinist,...

If you are preaching reliability, you have to practice reliability, too. That may seem simplistic and a bit obvious, but in the quest to promote reliability for the benefit of others, it is easy to...

Last year, I traveled with my wife to Disneyworld in Florida. We spent a week avoiding winter weather in Iowa - a vacation for ourselves this time, not tied to the grandkids. Of course we love our...

This article presents, in layman's terms, information regarding a high-speed electrostatic kidney-loop system, designed to remove submicron particles and other foreign matter (varnish) from...

Southern Champion Tray Company is a manufacturer and printer of food containers. The firm was motivated to change its oil analysis and lubricant management programs after company personnel were...

The clock is ticking down for North American companies that export chemicals to the European Union (EU). The six-month window for the preregistration phase of the REACH chemical control legislation...

There has been much discussion in the industry lately regarding the upcoming ISO 18436 standard series on training and certification of condition monitoring (CM) personnel. Many managers are...

In most slow, highly loaded, geared applications, there exists a lubricating condition that is typical for most failures due to adhesive wear. This condition is known as a boundary condition. In a...