One thing is common to almost all machines: the bearings of the rotating elements. Bearings are indispensable players in the industry, and lubrication helps in their smooth operation and longer service life. Although almost every factory in the world has rotating equipment and almost every maintenance professional knows how to refill bearing grease, bearings are still a woefully neglected device.
Specialists’ tests aimed at improving the reliability of bearings have identified three common bearing lubrication errors:
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Calendar-based greasing
Replenishment of bearing grease once a week or once a month may seem reasonable. After all, regular maintenance is a long-known procedure that every professional has learned at an early age. Even machine manufacturers advise best practices based on time intervals to ensure maximum tool life.
The problem with all general solutions is that they ignore the effects of variables. Two engines taken out of the box may be the same, but end up in a completely different situation. While one may land in a hot and humid environment, the other may end up in a cold and dry place. One can be used in a high-speed, low-load application, while the other can be used at low speed, but with frequent starts and stops. Replacing the bearing grease only as prescribed in the calendar often leads to premature failure!
2. The bearings which are over- or under-greased
The second mistake we all need to avoid is too much or not enough bearing grease. Too much grease creates pressure that pushes the rolling elements through the fluid layer to the outer tread. The resulting increased friction and temperature dramatically shortens the life of the bearing. Not enough lubricant does not perform its lubricating and dirt-removing effect and can thus damage the bearing. All this has the effect of shortening its lifetime.
3. Subjective bearing condition examination
Like any job, bearing inspection has a right and wrong way. Signals that can only be seen with the eyes or heard with the ears are too subjective to draw professional comparative conclusions. The third mistake is relying solely on subjective information, even though accurate, quantifiable data could also be available.
In modern maintenance technology, automation is now an indispensable solution.
Automatic lubrication systems allow for precision dosing, ensuring that bearings and other components are always properly lubricated. In addition, you can save time and money by using automatic lubrication systems, as it is not necessary to check and lubricate manually.
These lubrication systems carry out lubrication accurately and reliably and we can even check the lubrication points from our mobile phone.
With the use of automated lubrication technology, the reliability of the equipment is improved and the costs are also reduced, it is an excellent choice for the precise lubrication of rolling bearings, linear bearings and chains.
Choose the automatic lubricant cartridge that suits you according to size and lubricant, or if you want to use it with the usual lubricant, we will fill it for you!
Source: bearingnews.com
