2017­5­19 Understanding Grease Analysis Results

Understanding Grease Analysis Results

Noria Corporation
Tags: greases

"What are the corrective actions to take on the basis

of grease analysis results? How do you define used
grease limits like used oil?"

Grease sampling is becoming more common for

organizations looking to enhance their reliability
programs. However, in many cases, grease analysis is
performed only after damage or a breakdown has
occurred. Trend analysis of grease samples has
proven that early detection of grease or bearing
failure can be caught well in advance with a good
analysis program.

Before corrective actions can be taken, you must

know what you are looking for and what tests need to
be performed to obtain the necessary information.
Alarm limits must be set to monitor the health of your
grease and the well­being of your bearings. By
looking at these results, you often can detect the root
cause of a premature bearing failure, permitting
appropriate corrective action to be taken.

The image on the right shows a large concentration of

abrasive silica in grease, suggesting contamination
from an external source (dirt from outside the
bearing). In the image below, severe cutting wear
indicates the source of grease contamination is
coming from inside the bearing. Surfaces within the
bearing are coming in contact with each other, which
is tearing it apart.

Further
testing
of the
grease
could
help
identify the root cause of the bearing failures. If the
test results for viscosity and additive health are below
the acceptable limits for the bearing, this may reveal
that the remaining useful life of the grease was
depleted and that the grease should have been
changed much earlier.

Limits for grease in service should be set to establish

what is normal, abnormal and critical for the
machines. These limits can be determined by the standard deviation average, taking grease samples
from the same types of components at the same time (intervals). From these repeatable results

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2017­5­19 Understanding Grease Analysis Results

(averages), you can identify what is normal for the components. You can then decide what is outside
of normal by using the standard deviation average.

For normal samples, the average of all normal data is added to the standard deviation of all normal
data. These samples are considered "normal."

Abnormal samples are two times the standard deviation of all normal samples plus the average.
These samples are considered "alert."

Critical samples are three times the standard deviation of all normal samples plus the average.
These samples are considered "alarm."

As with regular oils, the oil in the grease is the component doing the work (carrying the load), so it
is essential that the following grease properties are also checked: viscosity of the oil in the grease
(ASTM D445), the remaining useful life of the additives (ASTM D5483), the moisture level (ASTM
D6304 or D6304), wear debris and particle count (ASTM D7690), dropping point (ASTM D566­02),
and consistency (ASTM D1092).

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