WHY THE NEED FOR GREASE?

Grease plays a critical part in the maintenance of your equipment and provides different benefits to keep crucial components protected. To keep your operation moving and decrease downtime, here’s what you should know about the special role of grease.

Greases are semi-fluid-to-solid lubricating products, composed of thickener, oil, and additives. The thickener within a grease acts as a sponge, holding the base oil and the additives together. This added thickener is crucial when it comes to the applications where grease is needed. Depending on the formulation, each grease will exhibit properties to handle various loads, temperatures, shear, and stress levels.

Greases are developed to stay in place and provide a longer the lasting barrier between metal components, such as wheel bearings. Because of its significant role in keeping equipment protected, it is important to use a high-quality grease product.

HOW TO RECOGNISE A HIGH-QUALITY GREASE?

There are four key criteria when assessing greases. Fulfilling all four will ensure the efficiency and durability of machinery and equipment in even the harshest conditions.

• Lubrication: This is the fundamental role of greases. Keeping equipment lubricated reduces friction and heat, allowing for smooth and reliable operation. It is essential that greases stay in place to act as a ‘reservoir’ of lubricant - a grease that cannot stick to the lubrication surface is of no use.
• Isolation: Grease can serve as a seal to prevent fluid and solid contaminants from entering a system. This can considerably reduce wear and avoid premature failure.
• Loading: Greases must withstand substantial loads without reducing their lubrication performance. If a grease separates under load, it will have a negative impact on machinery and equipment.
• Corrosion: Greases are able to adhere to metal surfaces, preventing reactive substances from causing corrosion - a damaging and costly problem.

The performance of a grease depends on how and where it is used. It is, therefore, vital to understand the environment in which the equipment or machinery will be operating - this is the first step in grease selection. With no ‘one size fits all’ solution, many factors must be taken into consideration, with certain greases better formulated for specific tasks.