New Grease Analysis Tools Available
Maintenance Reliability Group, in partnership with York Laboratories, LLC, has developed the innovative Grease ThiefTM, a new tool for streamlining the sampling and analysis of greases from important machinery. In the past, few reliable methods have existed for obtaining a reliable and representative sample from such critical components as Motor Operated Valve gearboxes, and electric motors. The Grease ThiefTM has been developed as an engineered injection molded sampler, capable of being installed on electric motors to passively capture excess grease for sampling. It can also be deployed actively into MOV gearboxes, retrofitted electric motor bearing housings, or to extract excess grease from the surface of critical components.
In addition to this new sampling capability, the Grease ThiefTM has been designed to streamline the analysis process as well. Through the use of a specially designed analytical instrument, multiple Grease ThiefTM samplers can be analyzed to reveal any changes in grease consistency while in service. While quickly making that determination, samples are prepared for subsequent analysis by FTIR, RULER and RDE spectroscopy to determine mixing and oxidation, loss of anti-oxidant additives, and metals and formulation additives respectively.
Followup advanced analysis with a Rheometer for advanced property analysis, Analytical Ferrography, and other test are available to pinpoint the nature of any identified deficiencies, and provide the customer with a set of targeted recommendations for equipment reliability.
The Grease ThiefTM was recently revealed at the Lean, Lubed and Reliable conference in Nashville, TN. |
