Monkey with grease and lose your bearings
May 1st 2008 Knowing when to grease a
piece of machinery, when to
stop, and when to just leave
it alone takes a finer ear than
many of us can claim. Too much
grease and you get overheating
and elevated pressures that can
burst the seals on your
equipment. Too little, and your
bearings get fried.
A properly greased bearing
produces a sort of white noise; as
grease levels fall, the ultrasonic
amplitude increases. One neat
aspect of using ultrasound is that
it is a short-wave 'localised' signal
that can be detected with little or
no interference from ambient noise.
The Ultraprobe 201 Grease
Caddy from Alpine Components
has a magnetically mounted
transducer that detects the
ultrasound produced by bearings
and translates them into the
audible range where they can be
heard through headphones and
viewed as intensity increments on
a meter. Low frequency signals
are filtered out allowing users to
hear bearing sounds while
applying lubricant. Amplitude
levels can be set to determine
whether to lubricate or not.
Inspectors now have the option
of mounting the Grease Caddy
directly on a grease gun or putting
it in a holster and wearing it on
their belt while noting changes in
ultrasound levels as they lubricate
bearings. A mini spotlight helps
users see grease connections in
low light situations.
Used as part of a conditionbased
lubrication programme in
which inspectors identify bearings
in need of lubrication while leaving
those that have enough lubricant
alone, the Grease Caddy is
designed to prevent overlubrication
conditions, one of the
most common causes of bearing
failure. More articles from Alpine Components Ltd: | 
