Lubricants: Performance and Uptime

Small as they sometimes are, bearings are certainly among the workhorses of industry. Without properly performing bearings, premature failure will result in disruptions and even catastrophic damage to many types of processes and procedures.

Yet, an often overlooked key to bearing performance and reliability – and thereby the bearing's application – is in the suitability and integrity of the lubricant that provides for bearing movement.

Just as bearings are integral components of many types of equipment, the lubricant contained in a bearing is inherently vital to its performance and lifespan. And the proper selection of a lubricant, like the bearing it supports, requires engineering expertise as a thorough understanding of the operat ing conditions of its application.

"Getting bearings of the correct design and construction is vital to the quality of our products," says Vern Gulley, purchasing manager for Anspach, a Palm Beach Gardens, FLbased manufacturer of high-speed power instrumentation and attachments for neurosurgery, neurotology, otology and orthopedics. "Achieving that end requires that we work closely with our bearing supplier to ensure that the bearings in our surgical tools not only withstand our customers' relatively harsh environments, but also that the bearing lubricants will endure the severe heat of required autoclave (steam) sterilization."

So, providing manufacturers and their customers with complete bearing technology involves a number of capabilities beyond the bearings themselves. For that reason, companies such as Anspach are increasingly turning to suppliers who can provide them with the correct bearing and lubricant combination as well related value-added services.

Such services are available from more advanced bearing distributors who purchase their products dry (without lubrication) from bearing manufacturers, then add the appropriate lube material when the bearings are sold to the user.

IBSCO stocks any number of bearings and adds lube as they fill orders.

"The capabilities and value-added services of bearing distributors varies according to their philosophies, customer base and facilities," says Jack O'Donnell, president of IBSC O (Intercontinental Bearing Supply Company), Houston, TX.

IBSCO is a distributor for major bearing companies, including New Hampshire Ball Bearing (NHBB ), Timken, Barden and others. Like other bearing distributors, IBSCO stocks any number of bearings on the shelf and adds lube as they fill orders. The firm services customers in the medical, aerospace, manufacturing and other sectors with a variety of bearing materials and configurations.

Among the most important distributor services, from O'Donnell's perspective, is the ability to integrate bearing and lubrication solutions with a cluster of related services. For example, IBSCO consults with Anspach to develop bearing specifications for specific applications, and then provides those bearings along with customized lubrication on an as-needed basis.

"Our engineers work with Anspach engineers to develop the best bearing solution for specific applications, including the most appropriate lube for the conditions inherent to those applications," O'Donnell says. "For example, their hand tools are highspeed, and therefore have certain bearing and lube requirements. At the same time, the tools have to be sterilized by autoclaving after each procedure. That introduces another variable – high heat. So, we have to adapt the lube spec to allow for both. There can be a lot of such trade-offs in many applications."

Equally important is the ability to analyze bearing failures and determine where adjustments to lubricants can solve the problem. IBSCO, for instance, can mix lubricants with specialized properties to meet very specific needs.

O'Donnell says his firm is working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to provide the bearings for the next Mars Rover camera. Of course, this capability introduces a number of other capabilities, such as the need for a Class 100 clean room.

"This clean room capability and our ISO-9001:2001 certification and aircraft re-lubrication certification also recently led to work with NASA's Starsys Group in Colorado on bearings for some different robotic arms," O'Donnell says.

The ability to provide customized bearing solutions, including specialized lubricants, can lead to other valueadded relationships. In the case of Anspach, its tools are used for surgery where blood, bone and other tissue may get bound up in the bearing. To avoid bearing failure, O'Donnell's engineers worked with Anspach and NB to incorporate a larger external seal into the tool, thereby maximizing bearing protection and longer product service life.

Another important ingredient to customized bearing solutions is traceability. Traceability is important because if there is a failure in the field, ball bearing experts will be able to isolate those failures to a given stock number and then take necessary precautions. This applies to lubricants as well as bearings. If a bearing is stored already containing lubricant that exceeds shelf life, IBSCO will remove the lubricant and replace it before the bearing is sold.

"Traceability is important to everything we do," Gulley says. "That applies to the bearings, lubricants, packaging – everything. We try to have traceability all the way back to the raw material if possible. Such traceability helps us avoid repeated problems and also be more accountable to our customers."

To maintain its credentials in custom lubrication of bearings, IBSCO is an authorized re-lubrication center for NHBB . That status is subject to process inspection and approval by NHBB , which is critical to maintaining the factory warranty.

"We are one of their largest distributors," O'Donnell explains. "We have been working with NHBB for more than 25 years and have a very symbiotic relationship, trading information back and forth. That relationship has really helped us keep ahead of the technology curve."

Another important benefit of being a distributor for NHBB and other leading bearing manufacturers is the ability to cut lead-time for IBSC O customers. Whereas an order to the factory would take up to 36 weeks lead time, the distributor can cut that time by 60% or more if they stock the bearings needed by the user.

"Reliability of deliveries is second only to quality in importance," Gulley explains. For more than 15 years IBSCO has maintained a sufficient inventory of the bearings and lubricants used by Anspach and many other customers, enabling them to depend on timely deliveries that will prevent disruptions in their own production schedules.