I am the oiler at a food processing plant where most all except drive end bearings are exposed. A lot of them have water running over them almost constantly, and even more lose their seals to sanitations high pressure hoses. So now I have bearings filled with water, some on a daily basis. The mechanics tell me to pump grease to them until no more water comes out, but I cant help but think that this deliberate overgreasing is doing as much damage as the problem its supposed to fix. I may be the lubricator but I am far from a specialist so any feedback would be appreciated. Oh, and plant lubrication is not high priority so they're not going to spend any money on something like this.

Hi T.H.,

Is this a fish (tuna) processing plant? And when you say exposed bearing, is it conveyor? If this is the case, the bearing rpm is very very slow, so your mechanic advised is right. Relubricate immediately after every sanitation and use H1 or H2 grease, that`s all you can do.

Regards,
Danny

Dear T.H,
You are facing a situation almost all the maintenance team associated with Food Industry face, You are not alone. Please select a Food safe grease that is either Aluminium based grease or Calcium sulfanate based as these soaps have better water resistance. Pl make sure they are NSF approved.
You can try Omega 58(Food Machine grease) or Omega 78 Corrosion control grease -Food Grade.
both are NSF approved. Visit www.magnagroup.com

Thanks. I feel a lot better to know that I'm not the only one with this problem. And in answer to your questions, its a potato plant and most of the bearings are indeed on conveyors. Thanks again.

T.H., Beware grease compatability when and if you change grease base soap types. Check with your lubricant supplier regarding this before you change products.
If I may recommend a site, These food grade products have served us well in the past
http://www.speclubes.com/h_foodgres.html

Hawk

Try SE-100 greae its calcium solfonate grease and its waterproof www.stewardenterprise.com ask for james steward.

TH,

One word of advice. Have the greases you are changing to tested for compatability. I have taken the word of suppliers in the past and been burned. I don't think it was malicious, but just a lack of knowing what else is mixed in someone elses grease. I had one set of greases tested that, on paper, should have been compatable. The test results showed they would be able to be mixed, but the performance at different levels of mixer was unreal. You may have performance issues even with compatable greases. I do know that certified labs is producing a bearing purge that can be used when changing greases. It might be something to look into. Or, you might just want to change the grease when you put in new bearings. Just some food for thought.

Thanks odie. Unfortunately SE-100 is not food grade. And Marty, you brought up something I hadn't considered. Tho we use only one grease, the bearings come pre-lubed. I will be checking asking about that now, thanks.

I have a question for you. Are you the one that changes these bearings and if so how many are you changing in lets say in a 6 month period? If you do not change these bearings can you find out when they are changed? The reason I ask is threr any way you can keep track of how many bearing failures you have and how long it takes to change them out. Most management teams like to see figures. For example: if a conveyor line goes down due to a bearing failure what is the down time cost encluding lost production,labor and parts to get this line back up and running. How often is this kind of failure happening and what is the root cause of the failure (possible over greasing). The other thing is how can this failure be prevented? Either by using a different type of grease or some type of sheilding to be place over the bearing while the conveyors are being cleaned. Getting all of this information together will help you with the management team and getting a solution to the problem. FYI pumping too much grease into bearing causes extreme pressure inside of the bearing, which causes the seal break and allow the grease to come out of the bearing. It is never a good pratice to over lube anything, it is just as bad as not lubing at all. I hope this helps.

swb, no I dont change the bearings, tho I usually know by the logs when they were done. And am usually the one letting maintanance know when they start going bad. I know the overgreasing causes problems, that was why I posted. And after telling the guys in the shop of your post, they gave me their standard answer; if sanitationn has already taken out the seal with the high pressure hose, all you can do is pump grease in til all the water's out. And I thought the shields were a good idea, but I guess that leaves plces for bacterial growth according to Q.A.. Thank you, and sorry it took so long to get back to you.

This is a very common problem in the food industry. Over zealous cleaning crews with pressure washers can wreak havoc on bearings. The first thing to do is to educate the personnel doing the cleaning. Second, is there any way you can install shields of some sort over the bearings to protect them from contamination.

My recommendation for a highly water resistant grease would be TRC's
FOOD MACHINERY GREASE E.P.. It is a Aluminum Complex grease that is NSF registered H-1 and is highly water resistant.

Another thing you might consider is a permanent lubricated type bearing. SKF bearing makes some solid filled permanent lubricated bearings. You might want to have your maintenance department contact SKF and speak with a tech rep to see if they can do anything for you.