Table Of Contenttitle: OilMist Lubrication : Practical Applications
author: Bloch, Heinz P.; Shamim, Abdus
publisher: The Fairmont Press
isbn10 | asin: 0881732567
print isbn13: 9780881732566
ebook isbn13: 9780585120263
language: English
subject Oil mist lubrication.
publication date: 1998
lcc: TJ1073.6.B556 1998eb
ddc: 621.8/9
subject: Oilmist lubrication.
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Page iii
Oil Mist Lubrication: Practical Applications
Heinz P. Bloch. P.E.
and
Abdus Shamim,Ph.D.
Published by
THE FAIRMONT PRESS, INC.
700 Indian Trail
Lilburn, GA 30047
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Page iv
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bloch, Heinz P., 1933
Oil mist lubrication: practical applications / Heinz P. Bloch and Abdus Shamim.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88173-256-7
1. Oil mist lubrication. I. Shamim, Abdus, 1964-. II. Title.
TJ1073.6.B556 1998 621.8'9--dc21 97-53166
CIP
Oil mist lubrication: practical applications by Heinz P. Bloch andAbdus Shamim.
© 1998 by The Fairmont Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
Published by The Fairmont Press, Inc.
700 Indian Trail
Lilburn, GA 30247
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 0-88173-256-7 FP
ISBN 0-13-975210-2 PH
While every effort is made to provide dependable information, the publisher, authors,
and editors cannot be held responsible for anyerrors or omissions.
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Pagev
To June and Rima
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Page vii
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Part I
Practical Applications 1
Chapter 1
The Impact of Oil-mist Lubrication 1
Chapter 2
Operating Principles and Systems Overview 9
Chapter 3
Lubricants for Oil-mist Systems 15
Chapter 4
Components of a Plant-Wide Oil-mist System 29
Chapter 5
Oil-mist Application and Venting 51
Chapter 6
Lubricant Collection 61
Chapter 7
Selecting the Application Fittings 71
Chapter 8
Rating Individual Machine Elements 81
Chapter 9
Electric Motor Lubrication 103
Chapter 10
Closed-Loop Oil-mist Installations 111
Chapter 11
Sparing and Redundancy Considerations 121
Chapter 12
Specifications for Oil-mist Systems 125
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Page viii
Chapter 13
Field Implementation 131
Chapter 14
Shipping and Storing Oil-mist-Lubricated Equipment 143
Chapter 15
Economic Justification for Dry-Sump Oil-mist Lubrication 155
Part 2
Scientific Principles 165
Chapter 16
Overview of Scientific Principles 165
Chapter 17
Generation of Oil Mist 165
Chapter 18
Supply of Oil Mist to Application Points 181
Chapter 19
Reclassification of Oil Mist 195
Chapter 20
Deposition of Oil at the Point of Application and Stray Mist 205
Chapter 21
Tribological Performance of Oil-mistLubrication 217
Appendices
ASample Specification for Oil-mist Lubrication Systems 237
BOil-mist System Troubleshooting Chart 249
CConversion Data 251
Glossary 262
References 267
Bibliography 271
Index 277
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Page ix
PREFACE
In a way, not much has changed since the First Edition of this text was released in 1987. It's
surely as true as it was in 1987 that there is very little of substance on the face of the earth that
someone hasn't already done, experienced, or even written about. Oh yes, there has been an
"information explosion," but even an optimist will have to agree that it hasn't been a
knowledge explosion, let alone a measurable increase in wisdom.
That said, it would be presumptuous to claim an exception for the technical topic of oil-mist
lubrication. Oil mist lubrication has been applied since the 1930's and what many an old-timer
has known for years we had condensed into the 1987 text. Still, in the late 1980's, a significant
step forward was initiated when Texas A&M University, in College Station, received a state
grant to study the theory of oil mist lubrication. As the younger member of this co-author team
(A.S.) started to work on the project in fulfillment of requirements towards M.S., and later
Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering, it became evident to the recent Exxon retiree (HPB)
that the First Edition of this text no longer represented a comprehensive write-up of current
knowledge. So, the two of us teamed up and decided that the impressive findings that were
documented at Texas A&M are certain to be of interest and value to a very wide maintenance-
technical, and also academic audience.
Here, then, is the result: A revised and thoroughly expanded Second Edition, which includes
the key findings of these efforts and extends the pool of knowledge from the primarily
practical to previously unknown theoretical aspects of oil-mist technology.
We owe thanks to the same companies and individuals who were instrumental in making the
original, 1987 edition possible: Alemite Division of Stewart-Warner (Charlotte, North
Carolina), Lubrication Systems, Inc. (Houston, Texas), and C.A. Norgren Company (Littleton,
Colorado). Their kind permission to make liberal use of, and to synthesize into book format,
major portions of their copyrighted material are gratefully acknowledged, as are the diligent
efforts of Alemite retiree Donald M. Bornarth inreviewing the initial manuscript. Very special
thanks are reserved for Dr. Fred Kettleborough, whose guidance and direction as faculty
advisor at Texas A&M was instrumental in channeling everyone's energies in the right
direction.
May the reader benefit from our efforts, and also from the generous input we received from
others.
HEINZ P. BLOCH, P.E.
MONTGOMERY, TEXAS
ABDUS SHAMIM, PH.D.
CINCINNATI, OHIO
JANUARY, 1998
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Page1
PART 1:
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Chapter 1
The Impact of Oil-Mist Lubrication
The application of centralized liquid lubrication to machines is not new.Conventional
circulating, pump-driven liquid lubrication systems have been in successful use for decades.
They were designed and implemented because they offered many advantages and did away
with much of the "human" element of machinery lubrication. The time-consuming task of
manual point-by-point lubrication was thus eliminated, as was the requirement for making all
lubricationpoints accessible for maintenance.
These liquid-oil circulating systems, while providing advantages, were nevertheless found to
impose additional handicaps upon machine designs. They can be expensive, since pumps,
filters, reservoirs, and piping are required. Machine assembly is more difficult, and the pump
itself becomes an extra maintenance item. Moreover, the development of extremely high-
speed grinders and spindles demonstrated that a liquid-oil environment can cause certain
bearings to run hot. The added heat input often results in accelerated oxidation and a sharp
decrease in the service life of the lubricant.
It was then realized that the distribution of lubricant by conveying oil particles in compressed
air overcomes many of the drawbacks of a circulating liquid system. No pump and no return
piping is required. Using the energy of this compressed air stream allows the generation of a
fine, dry, smoke-like fog of oil particles. This dry-oil fog can be conveyed over distances up to
150 m, or close to 500 ft, through piping or tubing. Keeping the flow velocity below 7 meters
per second (roughly 22 feet per second) results in very little of the oil condensing in the piping
or tubing. At the point of lubrication, an application fitting or reclassifier nozzle will either
meter this dry fog or change it to a wet fog,which is applied directly to the machine element to
be lubricated.
For many years now, centralized oil-mist application has permitted the continuous lubrication
of numerous machine elements, requiring only one common lubricator to be maintained per
system. Oil mist has been used to lubricate bearings of all types, gears, chains, slides, ways,
and other devices requiring a thin film of oil for lubrication. Soon after World War II, machine
tool builders began to design oil-mist lubrication into their finest and costliest machines
(Figure 1-1). Textile mills, steel mills, mine operators, paper and rubber factories (Figures 1-2
through 1-5) have applied it to web and processing equipment, conveyors, mobile equipment,
shaker screens, vibrators, crushers, centrifuges, kilns, pulverizers, dryers, and a host of other
equipment. The results have been excellent. In the highly conservative petrochemical industry,
entire billion-dollar complexes have adapted oil mist to thousands of new and existing rolling
element bearings in pumps and electric motors (Figures 1-6 and 1-7). Oil mist lubrication has
also been used to lubricate railway rails and wheel flanges, resulting in up to 400% reduction
in wheel flange wear [66].
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Page2
Figure 1-1.
Since the late 1940s, sophisticated machine tools have been equipped with
oil-mist lubrication(Source: C.A. Norgren Company.)
These industrial users have established that oil mist has significant advantages over most other
methods of lubrication. Continuous application of oil can be matched closely to actual bearing
requirements. The low rate of lubricant application made possible with oil mist provides
continuous lubrication without the necessity of designing a circulating system. This reduces
the manufacturing and installation cost of many designs and improves housekeeping by
reducing oil consumption, particularly where oil seal maintenance is a problem. Heat
generation due to lubricant friction is reduced to a minimum in applications where a liquid oil
sump is no longer maintained. We call this a pure mist, or dry sump oil mist application mode,
to distinguish from wet sump applications where oil mist is used as a bearing housing purge.
The pros and cons of the two application modes are dealt withlater.
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