Oil mist lubrication systems are excellent and produce great results.  But I've been hearing back from the field that this type of system uses atomized oil and the residue that normally vents to atmosphere is a contaminate.  Is this true?

What other supportive organizations recognize oil mist systems I need this to provide our Sales Staff with some
areas they can point to and say its OK to use oil mist
and that its not a contaminate.

Thanks,

Wayne E. Lovison
service-parts@naglepumps.com

This is a loaded question.  First what is the oil itself?  Is it a mineral oil, parrafinic, trace contaminations, USDS or FDA quality, EPA listed under RCRA or California Prop 65?  It most likely is a VOC and that would require several types of controls and even EPA permits.  EPA permits start with permit to install and then a permit to operate.  These include requirements of expected VOC leaving the building and therefore a limit of VOC's in pounds per year.  Such a permit may be affected by the location and surrounding industry's volume of exhausts of VOC's to the air.  Next, are you using any filter on the exhaust?  Is the mist system enclosed or to open air?  You need to contact industry Environmental Specialists to narrow down your answers.

phoward,

Thanks I really never looked at that side of the issue.
I think of atomized oil and think petroleum products.
The whole concept is to eliminate any pooling of oil
for the bearings to ride in or for heat to be retained.

I don't know any Environmental Specialist but will look
around and see if I can find one.  Is turbine oil a VOC?
What does that stand for?

Filter's on the exhaust is a great idea I will have to
look further on that.  I don't want to create pooling
where oil will settle and will need to find a way to
drain away this residue without infracting upon another
EPA issue.

If you've got anymore ideas let me know - Thanks Again

Wayne E. Lovison
service-parts@naglepumps.com

Probably the field use of term contaminate refers to the VOC limitations.

VOC is regulatory short hand for Volatile Organic Compound.  Organic refers essentially to anything with carbon in it and essentially all pretroleum products contain carbon.  Volatile refers to whether it will evaporate into the air on its own.  

True Oils are not usually volatile, but that is a loose term sometimes to anything petroleum and many petroleum products are volatile.  FOr the "Turbine Oil", you will have to check the MSDS.

After reading some of your reply, maybe you are asking questions about a symptom instead of going to the source.  There may be other ways to solve the lubrication issue you posed instead of a mist environment, that will also dissapate the heat.  Check the web or local yellow pages for lubrication engineering expertise.  For example, a boron compound, in a water base, is slicker and chemically more stable than oil, is available, and it avoids all the EPA issues at the same time.

Phil Howard

Oil mist when properly engineered, installed, operated, and maintained reduces rolling element bearing failures by 90%.  It does that by eliminating the inherent dirt particles that are in new oil, eliminating the dirt particles introduced by personnel by improper handling, eliminating recirculating wear particles, lowering the bearing temperatures on the average by 20 F, etc.  Good systems are cleaner than conventional lubrication.  Lubricating oils are not VOC's; remember that oil mist is not a vapor but a suspension.  There are over 20,000 pumps in USA refineries on pure oil mist and perhaps more than that overseas.  There is overwhelming eveidence that oil mist can be far superior to conventional lubrication in improving bearing reliability.  Texas A&M University found that oil mist will improve the L10 life of a bearing by a factor of 6.