Trouble Shooting
When asked to troubleshoot problems regarding lubricants we go over and above In the search for a solution.
This can be either where a product is not performing at the level it needs to or where other factors are causing issues out of our control. Our knowledge of not only lubricants but how they operate In their environment give us the ability to assist when others simply can’t see the bigger picture.
Case Studies
Lubrication Systems
"We were called in to look at an issue where a new lubricant had been brought in to replace a previous product. There was a failure shortly afterwards and we were asked to provide a better performing lubricant and attend site to reassure the customer that this would eliminate any further issues.
"The lubricant specification we were looking at should have worked on paper and so we were keen to get on site and meet with the engineers to discuss the problem and take a look at the equipment.
"Once on site we found that the product was being applied through a lubrication system to 4 areas of the machinery. 3 out of the 4 were functioning as expected but the 4th was failing with bearings seizing.
"While everyone else was focused on the change of lubricant we were able to step back and investigate the lubrication system to find that one of the lines was blocked and wasn’t feeding grease to the bearing at all. This could have been caused by the change of product if compatibility had not been checked so once the system was cleaned and refilled with fresh grease from us the site was back up and running."
Oven Temperatures
"Another case we were called in to investigate was a long standing customer who had been using our high temperature chain oil for many years. All of a sudden they were having issues with chains drying out and were looking to the oil as the source of failure."
Once on site we wanted to ensure that the conditions in the factory had remained constant, this meant looking at if they had begun making different products, increased the oven temperatures or slowed the conveyor speed to give longer time in the oven. The answer to all this was that nothing on site had changed.
"We went out to the ovens to see what was happening and found that there was building works going on around the site. The reason was there had been a hole in the roof directly above the ovens, this hole had allowed extra airflow into the oven creating spikes in temperature and removing oil vapours at a faster rate than expected that had increased the evaporation rate of the oil dramatically. Once this issue was rectified the ovens went back to functioning as they should. Without our ability to asses the site as well as the lubricant we may have cost the customer extra expense in supplying higher performing oils or lost the business as initially the oil looked to be failing."
Rotational Moulding
"An example how having the ability to modify products can help us retain customers was at a rotational moulders where we had offered Titan M to them for its high load and high temperature abilities.
"During its use, due to the high temperatures of the machinery needed to melt the plastic pellets and the length of pipe feeding the machines from the lubrication systems, the grease was causing blockages in the pipework.
"Our ability to reformulate the product to reduce the NLGI grade of the grease, increasing the oil content and making the product more mobile and tailoring the amount of solid lubricants to the application we created a product that performed consistently and reliably and kept the customer happy without having to look for alternative products to trial which may have done the same as ours did initially."