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In reality it doesn't take great technical skill to lube equipment.

Being an ole oiler prior to becoming a millwright and being in maintenance for over so many years I don't care to recall and not really wanting to disagree with anyone MUCH, I have to disagree with this quote.

Well, but compared to take a motor, or equipment, disassemble it and put it back togheter; applying the required amount of specified grease or oil, to the correct points/parts and refill oil tank to full mark does not seem difficult.

If I started a quiz about lubrication:

Equipment with lubrication oil is running hotter then normal.

possible actions:

1)top-up
2)change oil type

Justify your case

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Well, but compared to take a motor, or equipment, disassemble it and put it back togheter; applying the required amount of specified grease or oil, to the correct points/parts and refill oil tank to full mark does not seem difficult.

Well, we were not allowed to "grease" motors or fill them with oil. The E and I people had that job. But I must say, compared to rebuilding a motor, oiling and greasing might seem simple to an E and I person.

But on the other hand, how many people know what type grease goes in a gear coupling? OH! Sure one could go look it up in a hand book or file somewhere. Do they know how to actually grease a coupling, other than just pumping grease into it? There are seals to contend with and if an oiler blows out a coupling seal, there are going to be some p___ off millwrights.

Does the average "JOE" know how many "shots" to put in a running pressure roll on a tissue machine so that the grease will not sling out and ruin about 20 tons of paper, not to mention the felt, the surface of a yankee? "LOOK for it coming out." you say" Hard to stick one's head that close to a high speed 20 ton roll, what with all the heat and hot water and steam blowing.

What about rebuilding a pneumatic grease gun? Simple to rebuild? Don't think so the first time.

What about optiomatic oilers? Everyone know how to inspect and adjust these to the proper level on the run, when there are no level marks to go by other than the knowledge of where the level is supposed to be on the type bearing in the pump, jugding from the design of the housing?

Can everyone, in an emergency situtation, "change out the water" in the oil on the run in a pump, with out wrecking it?

Not to mention the gearboxes, air-line oils, sight glasses on huge paper machines, cleaning inline magnets, switching lube system pumps without shutting down a 100 grand an hour machine.

NAW! Maybe it is correct!!!! I guess any ole codger can oil!!!! Nothing to it.

Ralph, you seem know a lot about lubrication. I checked your website but why there is no reference or guide on lubrication?

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Ralph, you seem know a lot about lubrication. I checked your website but why there is no reference or guide on lubrication?

Hmmm! Josh,

I am sorry Josh. I'll have to check with our Website manager and see what is wrong.

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Ralph, you seem know a lot about lubrication. I checked your website but why there is no reference or guide on lubrication?

I suspect that Ralph has forgotten more about the practical, effective application of lubricants than most of us will ever know.

I used to work for a company that "restructured". As part of that process they made the greasers redundant, and paid the operators a few extra dollars a week to carry out what was termed a CARE role (Clean, Adjust, Repair, Examine). This meant that the operators would, for example, nip up a leaking pump gland. It also meant that the operators were responsible for carrying out lubrication.
On one site, the operators were so bad and so "careless", that the lube function was given to maintenance (the operators kept the money, though)

There are some positives to having operators do the greasing (helps them to learn machine condition, etc), but I also see a few negatives (lack of tecnical knowledge, not really understanding what they are doing, not understanding how important it is to get it right, not really caring enough to be bothered) The lube function for a lot of operators is just an irksome chore, to be done as quickly as possible.

I seem to recall being told that in some places in Europe, the Lube Technician was a position reserved for the best craftspeople/tradespeople, and was a postion that people aspired to. Don't know if this is true or not, but it would be nice....


Ian

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Ralph, you seem know a lot about lubrication. I checked your website but why there is no reference or guide on lubrication?

Ralph is not in the lubrication business, but you can contact his company when you have problems with your equipment and/or need to train your maintenance people.
Hint:.. Ralph is a well respected member in the vibration forum

Ian, you brought us on the right track again, Terrence throws in a statement.
The context why are the lubricators/oilers disappearing?

Because simply the "upper clouds" don't know what is crucial for the equipment. They outsource everything!! They would even outsource us to some third world country (lucky me ) if we were possible to grease the bearings via internet. And the CEO sits in his airconditioned room behind his laptop while the butler is serving caviar and champagne.
How you are going to protect your job, in a world that is ruled by beanies (the stock gamblers on wall street)

Well, what would a typical content of a vibration management strategy?

This topic can't be debated in just a few words, there is a very good book called Vibration Fundamentals ISBN 0-7506-7150-5 written by Keith Mobley.
I wished he had written it years ago, when I was studying and good literature was hard to find.

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Can everyone, in an emergency situtation, "change out the water" in the oil on the run in a pump, with out wrecking it?

Never did it, but refill with the drain open?

Yes books are good but rather generic in nature. So I think still need a site-specific document as a standard reference by all stakeholders including ISO9000 auditors and any best practice or gap closure assessments. the site specific document should represent the minimum requirements and determine the extent of the application of the subject at the specific plant. What do you guys think?

That site specific document might not be taken serious by the guys doing the work, if there are much more better documents/books, illustrations, cd's and other stuff. Not to mention the vibration standards used by GM, Lockeed Martin, IRD etc..
When the auditor comes looking for evidence of "compliance of the so called vibration program" waving with the "condensed site specific standard" don't be amazed if someone says that he never have seen that r...

Well, the challenge is to prepare a document better than others if you wish. We got a lot of info from here, so why not consolidate them into the best document which should be concise and precise.

I think preparation of this kind of documents should be considered part of your maintenance planning efforts. It's one of the leading indicators. Since you said somebody will say never see that rubbish, then write the best one for review and comments. Then publish, circulate and have eg an away day to communicate to all stakeholders if you wish. And some parts of the external documents may not be relevant to your own plant.

Or do you wish to show external documents to auditors or assessors, which may not fit your operating context?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

I hope the auditor knows the difference between decibels, rms and orders.

I have written many papers and manuals and developed routes and schedules. The PM comes out and the lubricator/Oiler goes and does the task.

LUBRICATION IS YOUR #1 MAINTENANCE PROGRAM AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS!!!!!!!!!

Lacking there and everything else is lacking. Loosing your Oiler and you've lost a lot. Generally automatic lubricators don't get it; why? You set them for three months and the PM comes out likewise. However, when you take temperature readings and make calcuations for all environmental concerns you find the auto-luber runs out 48 days later + they don't work correctly if not turned-on 24 hours in advance of installation. And the auto-luber don't have eyes and see little things that need attending to plus they still require maintenance and you end up paying more.

When we look at lubrication from a vertical aspect, there are definitely very complicated elements to it that you wouldn't want to have a person doing who hadn't spent years learning about lubes. However, there are simple elements to this job as well that can be handled by "operators" who don't require lots of knowledge. I would think that work orders can be issued to operators to lube equipment if that's a big issue between shifts to document whether it was done or not. Also, operators could be trained in the basics of lubrication. Lubricants should be stored in clean and labeled containers so that the wrong lube isn't administered in the wrong place.

Isn't this similar to doctors. The General Practitioner years ago delivered babies, set bones and treated people for whatever ailed us at the moment. Today, most women go to an OB/GYN to deliver babies, we go to orthopedic surgeon to set a bone or do surgery on an ACL. Yet some tasks are now simpler like a colonoscopy that used to require a specialist but can now be down by a GP. Technology has made that job much simpler.

I think the point is that we used to have people who might have owned a vertical task from top to bottom or at least a good portion of that task. Now we can take slices out of that vertical task and allow a less educated person to do that task and do it efficiently.

Sam, good to see you jump into the discussion, did you get your lubricators ?(not the automatic ones)

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Never did it, but refill with the drain open?

Good guess Steven. This would probably get one by until the machine could be shutdown. A centrifudge would work also.