Grease lubrication on a babbitt bearing 1

[RichardSteinburg]

New to this website. Hello to all.

I've recently been given the task of recommending the rate of grease flow for the bearings of a jaw crusher in a nickel mine. The crusher unit will have new grease injection points put into the pitman arm and main shaft bearing caps to supply grease.

Before I get into specifics, I'm just wondering if anyone knows a good resource for determining grease flow into a babbitt bearing.

So far I've seen that most babbitt bearings are oil lubricated, and I have heard that determining grease flow/injection rates can be a trial and error process.

Some factors that might come into play are:
rotational speed
type of grease
bearing clearances
?

Thanks in advance for any help.


Regards,
Rich

 

[unclesyd]

I have some to the same conclusion you have as there apparently isn't a standard formula for determining the amount of grease need in a Babbitt bearing.

From checking around and looking at some of my fathers old Audel handbooks the only concrete information was not to use too thick of a grease no thicker than NLG 2. If you decide to go with oil I've given you links to Green Velvet who are quite familiar with plain bearings If you go with a grease there is a link to two methods of lubricating the bearing.

I checked out the operation of several large deck winches (3 and 4 drum)on several shrimp boats where the operating manual essentially said keep it lubricated. Only one said to apply lubricant after 100 hrs of use with nothing noted on the ammount.

I think a good method to determine the greasing interval would be check the temperature as heat is the bane of Babbitt bearings. You could use the hand or get some Tempil Dots of around 150F. If the bearing starts heating up apply a small amount, one or two shots depending on you clearances. You could determine the end point like that used on auto universal joints when you had to grease them. Pump easy and when you see new grease stop. Once you get an idea of your requirements you cold use an automatic lubricator. There are some greases on the market that will give you a good indication when the grease is going bad by changing color, like red to brown.

http://www.purelubricants.com/index.htm

http://www.steamenginelube.com/ordership.htm

 

[RichardSteinburg]

Hey thanks for the info. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of trial and error for this project, but I was able to find a good book that provided me with the info I needed for grease flows.

"Tribology Handbook, 2nd Ed." by Michael Neale.

My office subscribes to

http://www.knovel.com

and I was able to get a pdf of the book there.

Cheers,
Rich

 

[H4Marine]

I might be able to help as we work with some high load low speed bearings running grease (we supply a composite bearing material to replace white metal)

I need dimensions, loads and speeds to give a full answer based on our experience with composites.

Neil