Lubrication management is important

Poor lubrication is responsible for approximately 36 percent of all premature bearing failures. This can be a result of either improper selection of a lubricant or a result of either insufficient or excessive amounts of lubricant. Implementing the right lubrication solution however can lead to increased plant uptime and productivity and increase energy efficiency.

Grease lubrication is the most common type used by industry although it can also be easily misunderstood in regards to suitability for an application, compatibility of greases and the amount of grease required for specific applications. Insufficient grease is recognised as an obvious fault while excessive amounts of grease is not usually seen as an issue, although it can lead to poor operating conditions, degradation of the grease or damage to seals and increased environmental costs.

GREASE SELECTION

Selecting a grease can be a delicate process. SKF has developed several tools in order to facilitate the selection of the most suitable lubricant. A wide range of tools are available from easy-to- use application based tables to advanced calculation software such as SKF LubeSelect to select SKF greases by using detailed operating conditions.

If the wrong grease is used in an application, premature bearing failure will likely occur. Additionally, if incompatible lubricants are mixed the result can also lead to unfavourable lubrication leading to bearing failure.

Manual selection of grease should consider the rotational