What is the best method for taking a grease sample from conveyor pulley bearings? I have a client that has had it carried out in the past and he wishes to do it again.The pulleys have both live and dead shaft arrangement, in this I mean one style has a shaft that moves (live)and is supported by plummer block bearings and the others have a shaft that is fixed (dead)in position.

How do I collect the sample without being invasive to the bearing or seals?

Thanks for any suggestions in advance.

Hooch

I am waiting for someone to give a good response to this question.

My understanding is that there are three possible grease locations:

1) Grease that has not entered lubrication zone
2) Grease in the lubrication zone (of greatest interest for smapling, but how to get it?)
3) Grease outside lubrication zone that either bypassed or has passed through lubrication zone

I suppose it may be possible to sample grease from larger open bearings, but it generally seams impractical to me to try this. I rely upon measurements of ultrasound, vibrations, and temperature (in that order) for status of lubrication.

Thank you for your reply Walt, I thought I might be seeing your name on this post. I too use the methods you have mentioned.
Unfortunatly the people who previously carried out the CM on this conveyor system were from a lubrication company,this creates a problem for me because they predicted that one of the bearings had damage using grease analysis. This pulley is about 1800mm in diameter and turns at approx 32rpm. This lube company said to the customer, the vibration readings they were taking did not show the damage.
I believe here lies the problem, the lube guy running around with gear and not knowing what type of data and how much he needs. This type of thing can leave a bad taste in peoples mouth about Vibration Analysis.

I have tried yesterday to get a good sample from these bearings. After about 3 hours of trying on several locations I believ tha sample that I did get has never been through the bearing yet.
I tried to purge grease through from one side of the bearing to the other but after some time I believe all I was doing was filling the void with extra lube.

Thaanks in advance