BEARINGS AND LUBES
“Listen” to Bearings Next time you spot a mechanic walking around complete with headphones attached to a stethoscope type device which he keeps prodding onto running machinery, don’t call the funny farm to report a flight from the cuckoo’s nest. You may very well have spotted a lubricator doing his maintenance rounds to grease all the bearings on the plant.
Ultra-Lube 2001: Lubrication/Re-Lubrication Flow Chart 1. Lower volume to filter out any background noise. 2. If Zerk fitting is connected to bearing housing through tubing, allow for tube volume.
T
he method he’s using to grease these bearings is called the Acoustic Lubrication Method, an acoustic system which attaches to any standard grease gun to enable the lubricator to hear when a bearing has been given enough grease. The UltraLube system is made by UVLM in the USA and distributed in South Africa by Chemserve. “SA Mechanical Engineer ” speaks to Charles du Bois, business development
Charles du Bois
The problem, which is critical to any bearing maintenance, is that he still never knows whether enough, too little or too much grease has been pumped into the bearing manager of Status Industrial Solutions, a business unit of Chemserve, for more information on this system.
Manual greasing
“Many companies still resort to the manual greasing
of bearings, especially if they are non-critical bearings which simply need regular maintenance,” Charles explains. “There is nothing wrong with a lubricator going around with a manual grease gun to do this, but the problem, which is critical to any bearing maintenance, is that he still never knows whether enough, too little or too much grease has been pumped into the bearing. “With the Ultra-Lube system you know exactly when to stop because the bearing tells you it’s had enough,” adds Charles. “Basically the system consists of a set of headphones, an amplifier unit and a sensor unit which fits directly onto the nozzle of a standard grease gun. The system, also termed ‘Acoustic Analysis’ or ‘Sonic Analysis’ is a rapidly growing technology for preventing over- and underlubricated bearings.” Several large local plants in the petrochemical and cement production industries use the system as a proactive measure against bearing failure with great success.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER
VOL 62
June 2012
11