Electric Motor Lubrication Program

We use 2 SDT units for ultra-sonic greasing of motor bearings. Their web site has instructions on how you go about using them in a lubrication program, and they also sent a rep. out to us when we were in the process of deciding which ultra-sonic unit to purchase. It has also been a great trouble shooting tool out in the plant.

Do you have re-lubrication routes scheduled? We started by using an old database that was developed for scheduling of lubrication. Some equipment was on a two week re-lubrication frequency. We now obtain a value (ultrasound decibels) and temperature readings on the normally scheduled re-lubrication frequency. Some reading frequencies have been adjusted to monthly instead of every two weeks. The decision to re-lube is then decided on those readings. We use SDT equipment. My opinion is that the database program needs to have the capability of utilizing copy and paste for database development. The data collector needs to have "slow scroll" for finding particular equipment services in the field. Auto advance needs to default to "on" and better point description would be helpful. Also, check turn around time on repairs, loaners, etc... Price played a big part in our choice of brand. To date, we haven't lost a single piece of equipment that is monitored. Good luck, feel free to email if you want more particulars.

Here is my scenario, two power plants, one built in two stages, commisioned the first stage in 91' the second stage commisioned in 95'. No documentation on any maintenance of electric motors, have been "fixing it" when it breaks, high turnover rate, obviously someone in the past has done greasing with incorrect grease (lithium added to polyurea and calcium). Many motors tagged out as "bad motor".
Second power plant commissioned in 2001, 18 out of 18 20 HP motors have been rebuilt due to wrong grease added, too much grease added, corrosive atmosphere, standard 256T motor mounted vertically in tropical environment, etc. Developing program in both plants to include PM's on electrical motors, want to go with something that has worked in other plants.
Environment is tropical,i.e., lots of rain, high humidity, mid to high 80's everyday, saltwater corrosive.

What did you eventually come up with in terms of a program? I am now at the stage that you were at in May. I can't say that we have had the same failure rate, in fact, only 1 motor bearing has failed prematurely in the last 18 months and that was due to mixing incompatible greases. I found an SKF formula that is generic, but I don't really have a better idea at this time. The SKF formula is Ga=.005 DB where Ga = grease quantity in grams, D = bearing outside diameter in mm and B = total bearing width. There is an accompanying chart that gives service interval. I have developed service intervals and quantities, but am concerned about over greasing. I am thinking about adding an Acoustic Lubrication attachment (see my post today, January 25th). I would then use the calculated values as a upper limit, hoping that the Acoustic Lubrication would pin point the exact amount of grease.

Isaac

We are new at the game of reliability but have had some great finds as we are getting things started. We are an infant liquid formula plant which presents it challenges to motors in the filling areas. We recently started seeing many failures on our small hp conveyor motors. We took these failed motors apart for inspection to find the root cause to be the 20000hr L10 life of the lube and bearing. These are sheilded bearings which the manufacturer considers not maintainable. To keep ahead of the failures we implemented a monitoring program utilizing the SDT 170. This program has been excellent and we have only missed one failure in the last 6 months. We have approximatly 350 of these motors on this one line and have made use of a motor rebuild program to keep replacement cost down. My boss wanted me to look for a motor replacement so that we could build in reliability we a maintainable motor, health monitoring program and a lubrication program. Well I have worked with Toshiba to build us a maintainable motor but the catch is if we are going to lube these it must be food grade lubrication. I currently have a kluber rep. helping me select an adequate food grade lube and calculating relube intervals. My fear is that I am creating a labor intensive change. Toshiba has went above and beyond to build use a beefed up EQP III with oversized bearings and caps with zreks and releifs among other changes. We ahve worked with our local toshiba provider to have any special builds after the initial replacement say 3 years from now if we would have a failure. If you have any opnions please reply I am on the fence with this and need some opinions.
Thanks