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Grease Refill Qty

This document discusses how to determine how much grease to apply and how often to re-grease machinery. It provides equations to calculate the quantity of grease needed based on bearing diameter and width. Frequency depends on operating conditions like temperature, contamination levels, bearing type, and shaft speed. The document provides a sample calculation and suggests using manufacturer guidelines or switching to advanced greases that can extend re-greasing intervals.

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Parmasamy Subramani
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138 views

Grease Refill Qty

This document discusses how to determine how much grease to apply and how often to re-grease machinery. It provides equations to calculate the quantity of grease needed based on bearing diameter and width. Frequency depends on operating conditions like temperature, contamination levels, bearing type, and shaft speed. The document provides a sample calculation and suggests using manufacturer guidelines or switching to advanced greases that can extend re-greasing intervals.

Uploaded by

Parmasamy Subramani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Grease - How Much to Apply and 12th Mar 2015

How Often to Apply it


Regreasing quantity (how much grease?) and regreasing frequency (how often do I grease?) are
two of the most common questions when referring to the application of grease in industry.

Some applications, such as double sealed bearings in electric motors, do not require regreasing
at-all, but most others should be re-lubricated periodically to replace grease that has deteriorated,
leaked away, or become contaminated. In practice, these factors are extremely important to
bearing performance, as both undergreasing and overgreasing can lead to major maintenance
issues. Undergreasing can cause metal-to-metal contact and equipment wear, as a result of
inadequate lubricant delivery in contact zones. Overgreasing can cause overheating, seal
damage, energy losses and oil bleed due to grease churn.

Many more bearing failures are associated with overgreasing than undergreasing. In fact, a
recent survey by Machinery Lubrication found that 70 percent of lubrication professionals
believe that overgreasing is a problem in their plant. This likely results from common
maintenance practices that involve frequent grease application to ensure the equipment doesn’t
run dry, but do not consider the potential problems that can occur when grease builds up in
systems.

Usually, equipment manufacturers will advise general guidelines for relubrication, and will be
the best starting point for your regreasing strategy, but for additional background into the
process, take a look at the calculations below.

How Much:

Determining regreasing quantity is relatively straightforward and simply requires knowledge of


the physical dimensions of the bearing in question. In particular, you will need to know the
bearing outer diameter (OD) and width. These parameters can be found in the equipment manual
or, if you know the bearing number, can be provided by the manufacturer (e.g. here for SKF).
Then, to calculate, plug the values into these equations:

Quantity of grease (g) = Outer bearing diameter (mm) X bearing width (mm) X 0.005

Or, for those not using the metric system,

Quantity of grease (oz) = Outer bearing diameter (in) X bearing width (in) X 0.114

How Often:

Regreasing frequency calculation is somewhat more complex than the calculation for regreasing
quantity, and it largely depends on the operating conditions of the application. Factors that affect
the regreasing frequency include: temperature, continuity of service, quantity of grease in
housing, size and speed of bearing, vibration, exposure to contaminants, effectiveness of seals
and the grease’s suitability for the particular service.

Bearing or equipment manufacturers recommend relubrication intervals based on operating


conditions and type of grease. For example, typically, light to medium duty electric motors, that
run continuously, will require at least annual relubrication. However, high temperatures,
continuous service, high speeds and vibration are all factors that increase the required frequency
of relubrication. A commonly used rule of thumb dictates that the relubrication interval should
be reduced by half for every 10°C above the nominally recommended temperatures.

A common calculation for relubrication frequency, which incorporates the operating conditions,
is:

Where;

· Bearing ID = bearing internal diameter in mm

· F1 bearing type = 1.0 for spherical or thrust bearing, 5.0 for cylindrical bearing, 10.0 for
ball bearing

· F2 temperature = 1.0 for under 70°C, divide by two for every 10°C above 70°C (e.g. 0.25
for 90°C)

· F3 contamination = 0.1 to 1.0 depending on the level of contamination¯motor bearings


normally 1.0

Using this example, for a spherical bearing application operating at 80oC, with shaft speed 1000
rpm, a bearing internal diameter of 100 mm and minimal contamination, the frequency at which
an operator should regrease the bearing can be calculated as below;

= 500 hours

*Source: The above formula was originally referenced in the Practical Handbook of Machinery
Lubrication: Second Edition. This blog post has added factors for temperature and
contamination from ExxonMobil field experience.

Alternatively, operators can calculate regreasing frequencies based on graphical methods, which
provide recommendations based on shaft speed and bearing type.

In addition to gaining a strong sense of the quantity of grease required and the frequency at
which you should regrease a bearing, selecting an advanced grease for your application can also
help you to control regreasing maintenance. For example, if you have a high temperature
application that requires constant grease reapplication due to oxidation, oil bleed and equipment
wear, consider replacing the grease in use with a polyurea based synthetic grease. This
conversion can help to extend regreasing intervals, offering the opportunity to greatly decrease
the quantity of grease required for operation, as compared to a standard mineral grease. Of
course, remember to check the compatibilities of grease products before changing or mixing
greases of different technologies.

Source; Conor Wilkinson, Industrial Field Marketing Advisor for the Nordics, UK & Irelan

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