Wire ropes are surprisingly ubiquitous and are used in various industries. I see them daily in Tangier Med Port, where I work. They are visible here in handling equipment in the container terminals. They are used to lift and pull heavy containers in Ship-To-Shore...
The Acid Number of a lubricant, sometimes called the "Total Acid Number" or TAN, is a commonly reported value for oil analysis and is generally considered an indication of oil aging and degradation. But what does it mean, and how is it determined? Let's break down...
Is the lubricant circulating through your system free from damage-causing contaminants? Using contaminated lubricants can lead to irreversible equipment damage, shortened life, and unexpected downtime. Instances of contamination can be identified by inspecting the...
As a rule, maintenance work is repeatable. The maintenance team may work on a specific pump today and repeat the same job two years later. Rather than reinventing the wheel (developing the work order tasks steps, reattaching pictures, and locating material numbers as...
In Part 1 of this series we talked about the evolution of rolling element bearing life calculations from the original work of Lundberg and Palmgren in the 1940s and 50's to the most recent ISO 281 standard, published in 2007. Central to the ISO 281:2007 standard is...
Although management and leadership are different ideas, they are frequently used interchangeably. While the two have some parallels, their focus, abilities, and philosophies differ. Understanding even the basics of management and leadership can help organizations...
The foundation of a lubricant condition monitoring program is the ability to obtain accurate and informative data that can be related to how the machine and lubricant may fail. In the past ten years, many industrial advances have significantly impacted the lubricant...
Oil analysis on oil reservoirs, such as a paper machine, provides much more value than most maintenance managers realize. Regular reservoir oil sampling can provide the following: Reactive information, such as a spike in wear metals identifying a failed bearing or...
What is Oil Viscosity? Oil viscosity is the internal friction within an oil that resists its flow. It measures the oil's resistance to flow and is one of the most important factors in lubricants. Viscosity is also defined as the ratio of shear stress (pressure) to...
Many factors influence the sustainability of a lubricant. These can range from formulation, product manufacturing and packaging, environmental performance, lifespan, product performance, to how the oil is managed at the end of its life. However, one of the most...
