we are just about to start using grease gun with earphones, and was wondering if others out there found they had to review the frequency and amount of grease in there lube schedule after using earphones, initial trials with stethoscope found we needed only 60-70% of recommended dose to quiten some bearings, this led me to wonder if i should up the frequency now that the dose is lower? also were there any savings on your lube costs?

What brand is it? Do you have any article commenting on its effectiveness?

Hey Josh, sorry about the slow reply, annual shutdown.... it's a UVLM unit ultra lube series, brochure with device just say's it will extend bearing life and customise outdated time/amount based lube schedules...fairly broad statement. I'm looking for any real life testimony's....any out there?

Jonesy
The intial quieting of the bearing is a good indicator the bearing was needing lube but you will have a tough time maintaining a consistent lube program if you do not take vibe or ultrasound reading to trend the noise. the sound that goes away now can be back in fifteen to 30 minutes if you do not recheck with the stethoscope later to make sure you added enough lube, whereas if you take a hard number each time you lube you will know the right amount is there from your trend data and if it does not quiet the bearing with the same amount you may be seeing the start of a problem.

Jonesy
Are you doing any other CBM work, such as shock pulse or ultrasound on a regular basis. I use shockpulse on regular inspections and use that as an indicator as to when we need to grease. Shock pulse goes up our Lube guy comes and greases it with a grease gun and a SPM lubechecker. It works great, we have cut back on the grease we use, our lube guy has more time as he is only doing what is needed and we have had no breakdown or lube issues.

Vrop,
Primarily, what kind of equipment are you using this process on?

How much training was involved to become proficient at the shock pulse process?

Hi Jonesy,

We were also using an Ultrasound Grease Caddy, but we could not be able to train our lubricators. So it was used only for some special cases. But i think it is very useful.

There was an interesting case which we could solve with that. The lubricator tried to lube the Motor Non-Drive End bearing of one of our equipments and he found that even he pumped lot of greese, nothing came out through the drain hole. Normally the procedure was pumping the greese till the old greese come out through the drain hole. He pumped again after 2 days, but still nothing came out!! Then they call us for vibration analysis and the vibration levels were ok. We used the greese caddy to check whether the greese is going to the bearing. But we couldn't hear any changes in the sound while greasing. That means greese was going somewhere else.. We opened the Motor and found the same.. The greese tube was not directing the greese to the bearing.

Have a nice day!!

Ultrasound will give you a better result than by ear simply because you not only need to use the equipment to perform the lubrication but you should also be implementing lubrication based upon condition which can be done with the same equipment.
Jenish, you clearly have a need for some good quality training on Ultrasound. May I suggest you look at the Level 1 training programme provided by SDT on either SDTNorthAmerica.com or SDT.be. These courses are provided all over the world and they also do in-house courses so there is no reason why you cannot successfully train your lubricators.
Jack J, there are many stories now of Level 1/2/3 vibration people enhancing their programmes and significantly reducing data acquisition time using Ultrasound.
Best Regards,
Tom Murphy

Hi Tom,

Thank You!! But i'm already a level-1 in Ultrasonics.

Hahaha.. I said we can't train not because we don't know, but because the people are reluctant to change what they were doing.I think, normally when we start a predictive maintenance program, you will receive lot of bad experiences like this..I still remember the days when we implement Laser Technology in our plant..There was lot of discussions regarding the accuracy of the alignment. This was mainly from the insecurities the old alignment guys felt about their jobs.Here also it was the same.we start it and later may be we could be able to change the greasing practices of the entire plant.
I think my English played the trick!!

Have a nice day!

Hi Jenish,
my apologies for jumping to the wrong conclusion.
You have a difficult problem. I have found that showing the guys who do the lubrication that there is a direct correlation between them overgreasing bearings and premature bearing failure is a good starting point.
Next they have to care and I leave it up to you to decide which is the best way to provide an incentive - all I would say is that in my experience money remains the best incentive.
Best Regards,
Tom Murphy

Hi Tom,

The main difficulty is, the guys who were doing lubrication here were doing this for years and it becomes their habbit. They will not accept a new guy coming to the plant and telling that they need to chnage their habbits.But offering some incentives is really a nice idea.. Ok, let me try it since it is not from my pocket!!

Have a nice day!!

I have never seen a bearing fail from over lubrication.

If you have data and pictures please share.

I have seen lots of bearings loaded with grease
after Stage 3 or Stage 4 failures by the folks
who will try to make it to the next shift or
outage. That would be the same ones that don,t believe we can predict the condition of bearings.