I found this document on lubrication of electric motor bearings which may be of interest to others

http://turbolab.tamu.edu/pubs/Pump23/P23Tut02.pdf

David,
Thanks for sharing this article, since its very useful to implement some of the best practices like automatic lubricators, grease caps over the grease nipples.

In my personal experience, most of the time the greasing task is wrongly done (due to negligence) by the Lube tech, causing overgreasing and lip seal failure. Thats why use of automatic grease lubricators can prevent this error.

Keep sharing good articles like these...
Rgds
Mohammad

David, The article seems full of good sense, however, I have found the approach to lubrication of GP machinery to be a very low priority in maintenance. The design of the cavity at the bearing is crucial. I have seen the instance of greasing the lock-nut and washer, It then acts as an impeller throwing the grease away from the bearing. I have seen a packaged air compressor with a remote grease line to the DE of the motor. On planned maintenance, years after commisioning the impulse line was found to be unattached to the motor, also it had not been filled, so the greasing which had been done had still not filled the tubing. There are many examples where the OEM or the maintenance management see lubrication as not worthy of too much attention.
As for automatic greasing bottles. I don't see the advantage, as the bottles have to be checked for operation, therefore taking a similar time and resource as the manual greasing it replaces.
We were eventually allowed to use a fitter's mate who was known to be resourceful, competent and conciencious. The difference to the reliability of the machinery was measureable after a year.
The bottom line is; to have good people from the bottom up, trained and re-trained. Everyone has a contribution which automation and computer systems will not always be able to replace.
Best regards
Joe Mc Cormack