Top 3 Tips For
Choosing Your Grease
lthough often neglected, we
all know that proper greaselubrication of industrial
equipment and machinery
makes everything
run smoother, more efficiently and
minimises problems associated with high
temperature, friction, wear, rust, corrosion
and extreme pressure. Despite the fact that
at least 70 per cent of greases are lithium
based, newer calcium sulfonate greases
offer superior multi-purpose performance.
But with a multitude of products on the
market, how do you choose between
them?
A
Here, Mark Burnett, VP of the lubricants
and fuel additives platform of water,
energy and maintenance solutions
provider, NCH Europe, gives three key tips
for choosing your grease.
1. Make sure your grease can stay put
under heavy loads
We ask a lot of multipurpose greases
nowadays. From ultra clean and dry air
conditioned environments and general
machinery in industrial plants, to severe
outdoor applications where conveyors,
pulleys and bucket wheels exert heavy
loads on machinery, your grease must
perform.
When put under these strains, lesser
greases will quickly lose their structural
integrity and get squeezed out of
equipment under heavy loading. Whether
it's the bearing on an industrial pump or a
bucket pin on an industrial digger, heavy
loads can cause grease to leak and squeeze
out under the force of gravity and high
pressure.
To overcome this, NCH Europe developed
K NATE, a calcium sulfonate grease with
unique properties. Made us ing a blend
of tackifier additives, K NATE contains
adhesive polymers that allow K NATE
to stick to surrounding metal as well as
cohesive polymers that allow it to stick to
itself. This formula means the grease can
minimise the effects excessive wear and
heavy load shock conditions, withstanding
a weld load in excess of 800kg on a four
ball machine.
2. Make sure your grease can handle
extreme heat and friction
Most of us know that over 70 per cent
of machine wear occurs on cold startup.
Before your lubricant has chance to
circulate and coat the internal surfaces,
metal-to-metal contact causes friction
and temperatures can very quickly reach
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PECM Issue 17
over 1,000 degrees, welding together core
components.
Extreme contact temperatures, combined
with operating and ambient heat in
applications such as steel mills, where
equipment such as blast furnaces, electric
arc furnaces, casting machines, cranes,
transfer cars and mill motors, can cause
catastrophic failure. Ultimately, this leads
to extended down-time, charred grease
and unprotected bearings.
When choosing a grease that can perform
as you need it to under heat and friction,
look for a grease that has a high working
temperature and dropping point, along
with other extreme pressure agents.
For example, K NATE provides effective
lubrication from -30 to 200 degrees
centigrade continuously and up to a
maximum of 230 degrees centigrade
intermittently. To top this off, K NATE
offers a dropping point – the point at
which a grease moves from semi-solid to
liquid form – of 288 degrees centigrade.
This high dropping point reduces grease
consumption, providing protection for
longer.
Heavy loads, combined with high
temperatures and friction lead to extreme
pressure (EP). That’s why we developed our
grease with EP agents that react to heat,
relieving pressure by introducing a thin
lubricating film. This film fills in the gaps
between asperities (the rough projections
present on metallic surfaces at an atomic
scale) even on surfaces polished to a
mirror surface. This lubricating film allows
surfaces to glide over each other, reducing
wear and elongating component life.
3. Make sure your grease can handle
contamination
Water, dust and corrosion are the three
biggest killers of industrial equipment and
no matter how much you try to minimise
ingress, over time, your grease will come
face to face with these problems.
If you've ever repaired, serviced or
replaced a motor, you'll be familiar with
the damage that can be caused by
dust and airborne particles. Especially
susceptible are applications such as
packaging, card and paper processing
plants where, despite the best ventilation
and ingress protection, dust can infiltrate
motor housings over time, clogging air
filters and overheating windings.
Likewise, dirt and other organic matter can
mix with grease to become an abrasive
powerful enough to score bearings, cause
pitting on gear teeth, and lead to long
term microbial growth.
Combined with exposure in outdoor
environments, or steam and condensation
in indoor plants, water washes away grease
like there’s no tomorrow, leaving surfaces
unprotected. This is another reason why
continuous production plants can never be
truly shut down, instead being serviced in
a phased process. If the plant is shut down
entirely, lubrication dissipates, corrosion
sets in and equipment seizes up when the
system is restarted.
To prevent these problems, K NATE is
specifically formulated with excellent
water resistance that limits water-washout
to just 0.5 per cent, where standard grease
exhibits over five per cent, along with
corrosion inhibitors that form a protective
barrier against external and internal
contaminants.
Even if you don’t neglect the regular
maintenance and repair of your industrial
machinery and equipment, using a high
quality grease will make all the difference.
From higher temperature and load
endurance to a more sophisticated ability
to combat contamination a good grease
makes all the difference. So remember,
choose a grease that can handle the
pressure, handle the heat and handle the
contamination.
www.ncheurope.com