By Bob Kendall When most people think about lubrication reliability, they picture what happens inside the machine. Bearings. Hydraulic systems. Gears. Pumps. Injectors. Oil analysis reports. But in reality, many lubrication failures begin long before the lubricant...
By David Placzek and Dr. Lukas Hafner, Deepfluid Typically, oil condition monitoring is performed through standardized laboratory tests at specified intervals. A representative sample is taken on-site from the system being monitored and analyzed in the laboratory...
Over the years, I have come across instances where issues have arisen, such as the filters blinding prematurely. With testing, this has ultimately been identified as leaving the tank open in a paper mill, and an investigation of the elements highlighted this, along...
When the lube room resembles a crime scene - chaotic storage, unlabeled containers, questionable handling tools, inconsistent transfer practices - it becomes a hidden driver of accelerated wear, additive depletion, ingress-driven contamination, and component life...
As with many things in lubrication, sometimes too much is as bad as too little. This is certainly the case with filtration. How Fine Is Too Fine for Your Oil Filter? To answer that, we need to look at several factors. First, let’s dispel a few myths about fine...
Varnish formation is one of the most critical and often overlooked challenges faced by industrial lubrication systems, especially in high-performance applications such as steam turbines, gas turbines, compressors, and precision hydraulic systems. Even when invisible...
Hydraulic presses in Oriented Strand Board (OSB) mills are central and indispensable to OSB production. They exert an immense, uniform force required to compress wood strands and resin into durable panels, operating under exacting temperature and pressure conditions....
Over the years, the one thing that has always struck me is how few reliability teams work with their counterparts in the Health and Safety and Environmental departments. Linking Lubrication to ESG and Sustainability Goals To quote the guru, Ron Moore, in his article,...
Over the past two decades, while conducting numerous Lubrication Benchmark Assessment audits across a wide range of industries—from Oil and Gas, refineries, petrochemical plants, and power generation facilities, I have witnessed one of the most neglected areas of...
Solid Particle Cleanliness In my previous articles, I have discussed how to achieve cleanliness within gearboxes and pumps, examining the entire aspect of solid particulate contamination ingress. However, I was recently asked by an engineer following the above...
