Plant & Facilities Engineering

You are right,

proper lubrication is mandatory for reliable function.

Look to the 30 years now lifetime of pioneer space-probes: the ball bearings of the gyros run at 100rev/second, have a lubrication system that has only some grams of weight and will be able to function properly for the next 100 years.

For similar applications where a very reliable product is needed I developed a system to measure the lubricant film thickness in rotating bearings (ball or fluid).

Results are published in the 1995 Rolling Element Bearing Conference, Draper Lab, San Diego.

This system needs a noncontacting sensor ring made from ceramic to be attached to the bearing assembly under test (integrated motor or electrically isolated motor is necessary).

A similar but much coarser system "Lubcheck" is available from SKF but this needs sliding contacts generating a lot of electrical noise.

I published a lubrication system similar to the abovementioned gyro-lubricating-system in the ASPE summer meeting, Penn State University, 2001. (ASPE = american society of precision engineers).

RHABE

This article brings to mind my time working in a pumped storage electricity power station, we had 6 x 300 MW machines, we had problems with the thrust bearings, which were 10 segments of white metal pads, supporting an all up weight of the rotor and runner, plus the drive shaft of approx. 520 tons, the machines were designed to run up to 85% of the 500 RPM running speed by which time the bearing pads tilted slightly, and the oil was drawn in thro' the gap caused by the tilt in the pad, then the high pressure oil pumps switched off, the idea being , the pad were self oiling! We soon ran into trouble, when the white metal would start to craze, just like a crazy paving, and the bits would fall into the oil bath, this meant an outage, with a down time of several hours, whilst all the 3,000 ltrs. oil would have to be drained and put thro' a centrifuge, and a set of new pads fitted at approx. £10,000 a time, the way around it was to have the HP oil pumps running continuously, with a new cooling system fitted as well, this system worked very well, until the same fault came up again, but with a longer interval between, each pad was supported on approx. 56 springs, which allowed the pad to tilt, also absorbed the `bounce` of the machines, as the runner had more or less water applied to it for generation, also the adjacent machine would have an impact when that came on or off load, a simple solution was to design a simple bracket to contain these springs, so that they gave adequate support to the bearing collar, the lubrication schedule was strictly adhered to in the routine maintenace, whereby the filters were changed, and the oil was cleaned with the machine on load by means of a centrifuge, This is not the same maybe as the article implies ref. lubrication, except in the first instance maybe when a proper design would have eliminated the first problems, undoubtedly the springs moving around under load would have been highlighted sooner maybe, it's interesting too that the company turned to Japan to design a magnetic bearing for one machine the cost of the bearing was £3 million I was told, the cost of the simple bracket made by an Iranian engineer I am told also, was £5.00!

That's why my Pickup has 303,000 plus miles on only tuneups ,don't burn oil and gets good mileage for a 350CID. The oil is changed depending on use not mileage. Wear in a ICE is chemical not what they say.

The valve springs are getting a little tired but I just hauled an old John Deere manure spreader on the trailer 4.5 hours into the mountains and hauled a load of fresh sawed lumber back.

Brad

I would say that is pretty good for 303,000 miles, I would agree with you that a lot of probs. are caused by chemicals in a ICE, I have always advocated changing my oils every 3,000 miles, but I have to be sincere and say I now change every 6,000 on my little VW Polo 1.2. It's all very mysterious, but to coin a phrase I saw on this website;

"Mystery creates wonder, & wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand" Good luck my friend, keep hauling.

Bangorjohn

I went into more detail on http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/12463#newcomments #7

A little long winded last night.

Brad