Improve productivity and your bottom line by combining lubrication best practice techniques and effective staff training with high-quality lubricants. Oil and gas is a demanding business, and by optimizing maintenance you can improve equipment reliability while reducing energy consumption and C02 emissions.
But how do you achieve running an effective oil analysis program?
Proactive maintenance is your first step, because sometimes once you reach the oil change stage, it’s already too late.
The benefits of oil analysis to improve plant lubrication performance
Collecting hard data is your best bet in steering you toward solutions to eliminate lubricant issues. Begin with samples to establish a baseline for the condition of your lubricants and lubricated equipment. This data will also indicate which equipment will require your attention first and how much lubricant is needed.
Identifying lubrication-related downtown will help you turn each problem into an opportunity for long-run cost-saving methods! Some examples are:
- Low-grade lubricants or missed cycles
- Under- or over-lubrication
- Using the wrong lubricant or none at all
- Contamination of oils & greases
- Seal damage or leaks
- Compatibility problems
Lubrication management software such as MAINTelligence™ consolidates all relevant information to help you schedule, supervise and record data associated with equipment lubrication such as trend data and generating a responsive lubrication schedule. Tracking usage in this way flags developing problems and misunderstandings of lubrication procedures.
The difference between conventional mineral oil & synthetic lubricants
Why does it matter which you use? Because the wrong one can cause machine component failure while the right one is wholly dependent on the application.
Mineral oils tend to break down under extreme heat and form deposits. Although these petroleum oils are expected to be produced at a higher standard of purity, there is some unknown and unwanted content that still may be present.
Synthetic lubricants and greases have consistent as well as sustainable properties which provide a variety of overall performance upgrades and improvements. However, synthetics offer maximum protection for engines, motors, machines, and other moving parts as they are more consistent properties.
Some benefits of Synthetic lubricants and greases
- There is increased wear protection as there is fluid film protection, high shear stability, and reduced scuffing, pitting, & rolling contact fatigue.
- There’s a wide temperature range because it maintains fluid film protection at high temperatures as well as greater fluidity at lower temperatures.
- A longer oil life that is free of unstable molecules is prone to degradation, which in turn extends oil drain intervals along with higher resistance to oxidation.
- Overall improved the bottom line by optimizing equipment performance and reducing company maintenance costs.
Selecting your lubricant requires extensive knowledge of both the machine, types of lubricant, and their proper application.
Predictive maintenance to improve lubrication processes
MAINTelligence™ helps organizations collect, manage, and analyze your lubrication, vibration, thermography, ultrasound, and motor test data in one software solution that provides a transparent and complete picture of your asset’s health to perform optimal maintenance rather than take reactionary steps, so you’re making risk-informed decisions.
As your total lubrication and oil analysis management solution, MAINTelligence™ Sample Manager to manage oil analysis and InspectMT™ to manage lubrication rounds is a flexible software package to improve your asset availability and achieve a healthy bottom line.
Learn more about how MAINTelligence™ can help with developing your lubrication or oil analysis program.
