Taking Care of Your Lubricant

Get the longest service life out of your equipment by taking care of your lubricant. Here’s how…

Select the Right Lubricant

Make sure the viscosity (which works to separate metal parts and minimize friction) and lubricant type (which indicates whether the lubricant can meet the performance requirements for your application) are appropriate for your application.

Keep It Cool

Temperature impacts viscosity: If it’s too hot, power will be lost due to mechanical friction. (High temperature can also affect the life of other components, like hoses and seals.) If it’s too cold, power will be lost to fluid friction. Most industrial oils should be maintained around 110-140F to ensure viscosity meets OEM recommendations.

Keep It Clean

Particle contamination can be hard (like dirt) or soft (like sludge.) Hard particles can lead to wear, while soft particles can lead to reliability issues. You can minimize your particle contamination through proper transfer practices and filtration.

Keep It Dry

Water is a contaminant, and can exist in lubricant in 3 forms: Dissolved (no affect,) emulsified (negative affect,) and free water (negative effect.)  It can:

• Reduce the lubricant’s film strength, leading to both wear & corrosion
• Cause the lubricant to oxidize faster and lead to soft particles like sludge
• Be more damaging to system reliability than hard particles (such as dirt)

So make sure you’re doing your part to keep your lubricants dry!