• Log In
  • Register
  • Home
    • Contact
    • About Rafe
    • About LX
  • LX Pro
    • News Feed
    • Courses
    • Groups
    • Members
    • Account details
  • Services List
    • LX Pro Course List
    • Training Options
    • Consulting Options
    • Marketing Options
  • Publications
    • LX Articles
    • External
    • YouTube
    • Podcast
  • Forums
    • Additives
    • Base Oils
    • Filtration
    • Degradation
    • Oil Analysis
    • Turbines
    • Compressors
    • Greases
    • Electric Motors
    • Bearings
    • Gears
    • Engines
    • Hydraulics

    Shopping Cart

    No products in the cart.
    Sign in Sign up

    Shopping Cart

    No products in the cart.
    • Home
      • Contact
      • About Rafe
      • About LX
    • LX Pro
      • News Feed
      • Courses
      • Groups
      • Members
      • Account details
    • Services List
      • LX Pro Course List
      • Training Options
      • Consulting Options
      • Marketing Options
    • Publications
      • LX Articles
      • External
      • YouTube
      • Podcast
    • Forums
      • Additives
      • Base Oils
      • Filtration
      • Degradation
      • Oil Analysis
      • Turbines
      • Compressors
      • Greases
      • Electric Motors
      • Bearings
      • Gears
      • Engines
      • Hydraulics

    • Log In
    • Register

    Tag: Asset Management

    What Maintenance Challenges are Unique to Food Manufacturing?

    Rafe sits down with Simon Murray – Reliability Coach at Your Maintenance Coach to discuss all things regarding maintenance, reliability and asset management in the…

    Rafe Britton 13 December 2021
    0 Comments

    Why is Lubrication One of the Most Important Aspects in Asset Management?

    Lubrication is really a subset of industrial asset management. It never seems to receive the care and attention it deserves for three key reasons: Lubrication…

    Rafe Britton 9 December 2021
    0 Comments

    Recent Posts

    • How does the lubricant change between different compressor types? 
    • The Effect of Gases on Compressor Oils
    • Ash in Gas Engine Oils
    • What is RPVOT and How Should I Use It?
    • What is the Best Way to Remove Water from Large Oil Systems?

    Recent Comments

    • Uthman Rufa'i Dhinnurain on Course Selection
    • Tania Juarez on Course Selection
    • Marcos Rubio on Course Selection
    • Thomas Martin on Course Selection
    • Rafe on What is the Best Way to Remove Water from Large Oil Systems?
    © 2023 - Lubrication Expert
    Why is Lubrication One of the Most Important Aspects in Asset Management?

    Forum Description

    Lubrication is really a subset of industrial asset management. It never seems to receive the care and attention it deserves for three key reasons:

    1. Lubrication is an essential component of all mechanical systems
    2. It often represents a single point failure mechanism for mechanical equipment
    3. It is poorly understood and not practiced correctly - which means that there is enormous upside

    Let's break down some of those reasons in more detail.

    Lubricants are a common thread among components

    You can't ignore lubricants. They are in everything. The basic rule is - if it moves, it is lubricated. As a result, lubricants are an essential component of any asset management strategy. You have probably already come across the idea that "we need to treat lubricants as an asset". I generally subscribe to that idea but with a slight revision - we should treat lubricants as part of the asset.

    What does that mean? Let's take a simple mechanical system - an industrial gearbox and consider what parts of the asset we might inspect.

    Would you be concerned if the gear teeth start to degrade? You should be concerned if your lubricant starts to degrade.

    Would you monitor gear speed? You should monitor viscosity.

    Would you notice if the colour of the casing started to change - after all that could be corrosion? You should notice if the colour of the oil changes.

    Would you be aware if the gearbox started to make strange noises? You should also pick up on the oil system making strange noises.

    Thinking of the lubricant as a fundamental part of the system - just like a bearing, a tooth, a seal or a coupling will enhance the performance of that asset.

    Gear lubrication

    Lubricants are typically a single point failure risk

    Think of a large frame gas turbine. You may have 100 tonnes of steel rotating at high rpm and all that separates the bearing surfaces is a 1 micron lubricant film! If that lubricant film fails, the cost of repair is in the millions of dollars. The cost of downtime is in the millions of dollars. But there is really no backup mechanism to protect the main bearing if the lube oil system fails.

    Do you give other single point failures in your plant specific attention? Yes. Do you monitor them closely? Yes. Then we should do the same for many of our lubricants.

    Lubricants are poorly understood

    There’s something to the fact that almost everyone in asset management comes from a mechanical background - especially in the rotating machinery world. Unfortunately lubricants and lubrication require a decent understanding of chemistry. For that reason it isn't like a lot of the other disciplines, and can frankly be a little intimidating.

    The other side of the coin is that this represents a huge opportunity at most locations and in most industries. There is a great deal of "low hanging fruit" still available - and this means reliability improvement & cost savings with very little investment.

    If you're looking for a high ROI - lubrication is a good bet.

    Dog reaching low hanging fruit

    Report

    There was a problem reporting this post.

    Harassment or bullying behavior
    Contains mature or sensitive content
    Contains misleading or false information
    Contains abusive or derogatory content
    Contains spam, fake content or potential malware

    Block Member?

    Please confirm you want to block this member.

    You will no longer be able to:

    • See blocked member's posts
    • Mention this member in posts
    • Invite this member to groups
    • Message this member
    • Add this member as a connection

    Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

    Report

    You have already reported this .
    Clear Clear All