I want to run a test on a new synthetic food grade lube on some of our production equipment in place of standard FGL-2 lube.
Is there a general period of time that I should allow to get sufficient results? I don't know if I should allow the test to run 6 months, 12 months, etc.
Also, in the test,would it be best to test on a piece of equipment that has shown failures on a particular bearing??
What do you folks ordinaraly do when introducing a new grease?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions...you folks are the experts. :-)

BrianL,

When testing new grease, I generally try to do something of the following:

Record conditions of existing grease for reference:
Time in service, steady state temperatures of operation, sample report in fresh condition, sample report at 1 week, 4 weeks, 6 months (something like that)

Then do the same for the new grease in close as possible identical setup.

Usually in my operation, I walk by it every day or so, feel all over it and watch temperatures like a hawk.

Of course depends on what you are trying to accomplish - better load bearing, cost reduction, lower temperature, longer life of lube, longer duration between changeouts or lubing frequency.....

I generally feel good about it when the temperature levels out lower than before and appearance of grease looks good....

Probably not the best practice or most scientific, but has served me pretty well in the past. (of course I have studied the compatabilities and specs thoroughly before trying this)

seigga813, thanks for the reply. I've identified a couple of machines to do the test on.
I'll try to remember to post my results.

quote:

Also, in the test,would it be best to test on a piece of equipment that has shown failures on a particular bearing??

I would not exclude a equipment from the test due to past problems with a bearing. Applying seigga813 suggestion you should record actual conditions with current lubricant and compare with new grease. That way you could see if new lubricant can decrease (hopefully eliminate) the bearing failures.

Dear BrianL,

I have a test stand that I use to test new greases. I run Timken bearings for 35 hours at 800 RPM while dosing (.012 cu in) the bearing with grease every 15 minutes. I collect the grease that gets pushed out in a tray and have a lab check the grease and the bearings. This method seems to work well as only the better greases tend to pass. Another great part is not subjecting the equipment to the testing.