State-of-the-art Food-Grade Lubricants Contribute to Economic Success
The most recent lubricant developments contribute to economical and successful plant and machine operation. With safety such a key consideration, we look at how safety, reliability and cost effectiveness are achieved.
Regarding the lubricant as an investment in economic efficiency rather than just as a commodity, pays off in many ways. Of course, the price of the lubricant is a factor, but it is more important to look at the entire cost-benefit calculation of a given application. If synthetic high-performance lubricants tuned to the particular application are used, the total cost of operation decreases. Such lubricants help to save costs even though their purchase price is higher than that of standard lubricants as price is just the tip of the iceberg; hence the potential for cost savings can only be detected on a second look. There, hiding from first sight, are the savings in down-time costs, maintenance, energy, spare parts, storage, disposal and of course lubricant consumption that speciality food-grade synthetic lubricants contribute to reducing.
Bearing Lubrication
When it comes to bearing lubrication, speciality greases ensure extended maintenance intervals. One such recent example is the water pump bearings on a pea processing production unit.
The process lines wash and provide fresh garden peas to their 20 canning lines over the 3-month pea processing season; it is vital that processing can be almost continuous. In previous years, the bearings on the water pumps had been suffering from unreliability during use and failure of two or three of these bearings during the processing season had not been uncommon. Each failure resulted in 1.5 hours’ downtime while the bearings were replaced and would halt the processing of up to 8 tonnes of peas or 25,000 cans, valued at over Eur18,000.
The customer changed their currently specified white-oil based lubricant to the PAO- based Kluberfood NH1 14-261, providing excellent water resistance and wear reduction characteristics that would enable longer bearing life. No bearing related failures have now occurred since the 2011 season saving significant cost and time.
Safety, Performance and Lubrication Life
High performance lubricants registered to H1 and certified to ISO-21469 contribute significantly to equipment performance and safe production methods.
At the same time, with the specification of the correct lubricant without compromise, substantial costs savings in lost production, personnel demands and materials can be made. Lubricants tuned to the application at hand help to avoid such costs and are instrumental for trouble-free operation of plants and machines.
Speciality lubricants also contribute to economic and environmentally-friendly operation. High-performance lubricants tailored to a particular application facilitate reliable low- or minimum-quantity lubrication while making efficient use of energy and therefore contribute to conserving resources.
