Recently, Trico’s Mike Gauthier (Reliability Services), Jay Wilson (Engineering Services) and Lindsay Engineering’s (Pdm technicians) Craig Stichler and Justin Tolliver went to work implementing some upgrades for a customer in the paper industry.

This customer’s goal was to implement a lubrication condition monitoring, condition inspection, and contamination control program in order to monitor the quality of the lubricants in critical equipment.

This industry typically has a challenging operating environment that encounters severe particulate (dust) created through the manufacturing process and areas where severe heat is present.

Mike and his team implemented a solution that will be able to extend the life of the equipment and give the customer more piece of mind, longer lubrication life, and substantial savings in future asset maintenance.

Trico understands that protecting the integrity of in-service lubricants and extending lubricant change frequency through a greater understanding of lubricant condition results in substantial savings when you consider the amount of expense that goes into the process for a single gearbox service. Obtaining representative and repeatable oil sampling via pitot tube/sample ports provides a more accurate picture of what’s going on inside the equipment.

Part of this solution was to include couplers on both the suction and return portions of the gearboxes for filtration options, which not only extends the lubricant life and equipment lift, but also makes for fewer man hours when a condition based oil change is required.

Mike also recommended the Trico branded Watchdog EX Desiccant Breather to mitigate contaminants from entering the system which greatly extends the life of the lubricant, subsequently extending the life of the gearboxes.

As companies recognize lubrication management more and more as a means to savings in capital equipment, maintenance, and man hours Trico’s lubrication management solutions make more sense. Over time the savings continue to increase over less effective measures and that adds dollars to the bottom line.