Like other condition monitoring techniques, oil analysis is vital in monitoring equipment health and maintaining performance. It aims to detect underlying root causes of failure and early-stage potential failures before they cause significant damage. Oil sampling is...
This article chronicles a reliability journey at a chemical manufacturer in the Southeastern United States. Implementing a reliability-based maintenance program has tremendous business benefits – the kind of impact that executives get excited about. Before our plant...
Condition-based greasing is an old and desirable idea. It is the finesse approach to fulfilling grease-based bearing care when done with precision. Efficient. Effective. Reliability-Enhancing. The most desirable objective for grease-lubricated bearings. It can be...
Throughout my years in the maintenance and lubrication industry, I've seen maintenance strategies evolve from reactive, to proactive, to preventive, to now moving their way to predictive. As we move towards the future, we're seeing companies move toward a predictive...
Why The Most Popular Oil Analysis Test Ever Might Actually Be the Worst Over the years, oil analysis has gone from something adopted by just a few asset owners with critical components to a universal tool to achieve reliability. As oil analysis entered the...
The Evolution of Bearing Life Calculations and the ISO 281 Standard From slow-turning pillow block bearings to high-speed fan and electric motor bearings, rolling element bearings are the most common lubricated component in any industrial plant. The earliest known...
The old battle cry in the hydraulics world is "flow makes it go." However, pressure determines the ability of actuators to move heavy loads. Therefore, flow and pressure together define the total power of the hydraulic system. Hydraulic Oil Viscosity Hydraulic oil...
My focus is on what and how companies invest in their equipment to drive results. As someone who has worked in maintenance and reliability for more than 40 years, I enjoy learning about what is new. However, the reoccurring mistake in all equipment purchases is the...
Many companies utilizing rotating equipment have initiated or planned to create decarbonization strategies. The process reduces and compensates for the emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), ultimately down to "Net 0". Lubricants are an essential component in...
Lubricants are the lifeblood of machines. Like a blood test, lubricant analysis can provide early warnings of impending failures, far in advance, before it is too late to take timely action. But not all oil samples can give such alerts completely! Only representative...
