Eliminating the risk to machinery from product changeover, accidental mixing, and supply chain disruptions.

DESCRIPTION

Compatibility charts are not the answer! These charts are not reliable because they address only thickener “families”, lack a testing basis for their information, and are often found to contradict each other. Compatibility charts do not address lubrication requirements for the machine in question, and fail to account for base oil or additive differences, which can have a  significant impact on lubrication effectiveness.

A compatibility study is performed to determine potential problems when transitioning between grease products without fully accessing and cleaning all of the old grease from the machine. This becomes an issue as supply chains are disrupted, or when determining how to lubricate with a new product when there is existing grease in a machine. Mixing incompatible greases can lead to problems including separation, softening and leakage, hardening of grease mixtures, and compromise of the protective lubricating film that results in inadequate lubrication and machine failure.

Advantages of Testing

1. Grease mixtures can be evaluated without damaging equipment or affecting uptime.

2. Can provide data to support either the ability to mix greases or if the greases need to be completely cleaned out.

3. Assesses the risks and costs of available alternatives.

4. When a compatible alternative is found, this reduces the costs associated with downtime and disassembly required to completely clean all traces of the previous grease from the equipment.

Testing

1. In preparation for the study, our laboratory technicians compare the NLGI Grade, thickener type, additives, and viscosity and type of the base oil of the two greases in question. 

2. Mixtures of grease are created in ratios to simulate the conditions that will be experienced in the machine.  These mixtures are loaded into our bearing simulator test stand (or alternate test stand configurations that better simulate machine types and speeds) for operation over a 72 hour period.  

3. The bearings are then sampled and evaluated for rheological properties, along with other tests such as FTIR, RULER, and elemental spectroscopy. 

Interpreting Results

To PASS, mixtures must have responses that are between the two baseline greases. Anything outside of this can result in the grease mixture performing differently than expected.

To learn more about Grease Compatibility Testing, watch this informative video on our YouTube channel, or call us at +1 717 324 5921 to discuss your application.