Greasing Maintenance and Testing

Proper lubrication of bearings is a difficult problem to tackle.  Unless the lubrication technician is able to hear the sound of the bearing during actual lubrication, it's a guessing game. Not adding enough grease will cause premature bearing failure and adding too much grease can create high pressures on the bearing leading to failure.

If prior to greasing, the bearing is noisy, this first of all, establishes that the current lubrication schedule and/or volume of lubrication is inadequate. If lubricant is applied to a noisy bearing and the noise abates for a short period or noise does not reduce at all, this confirms a bearing problem.

In either case, being alerted to the problem allows a maintenance plan to be put into place to replace the damaged component. Until the actual replacement of component takes place, more intensive greasing and customization of the lube type can help to prolong the life of the component.

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