An Integrated Approach to Lubrication Excellence

at BHP Steel
Lubricated equipment at BHP Steel is massive in quantity and critical to
production. It covers millions of bearings, gearboxes, heavyduty diesel engines,
and hydraulic systems throughout hundreds of BHP plants !orld!ide. "n
investigation conducted by BHP #esearch $ %echnology &evelopment in '(()
revealed that the potential savings system!ide in the material and repair costs
of lubricated components *including lubricant consumption but excluding
do!ntime loss+ is as much as ,-. million per year.
&uPont found that the contribution of maintenance improvement to equipment
uptime is '. times that of the maintenance cost savings, to further raise the
sta/es. &ue to its enormous cost reduction and profitproducing potential, a ne!
program called the Lubrication 0aintenance Improvement *L0I+ has been
targeted as a strategic business imperative at BHP. "s such, a lubrication
condition assessment pro1ect !as initiated to focus upon extending the life of
lubricated equipment. %his article details the results of the lubrication condition
assessment pro1ect including t!o successful applications !here lubrication
contamination problems !ere effectively rectified.
Assessing Lubrication Condition
In order to understand and quantify lubrication problems, a comprehensive
lubrication condition assessment for critical equipment !as conducted.
Lubrication conditions !ere assessed using three condition indices, '+ 2il
3ondition Index, 4+ Solid Particle 3ontamination Index and -+ 0achine 5ear
Index. %he three indices are described further belo!6
7 2il 3ondition Index %his is an integrated indicator representing changes in
viscosity, !ater *8+, oxidation, additive depletion, etc., used to identify the
lubrication problems such as incorrect lubricants, overextended oil drain
intervals, fluid contamination, etc.
7 Solid Particle 3ontamination Index %his index is measured by automatic
particle counter and is represented by the IS2 3leanliness 3ode.
7 0achine 5ear Index %his is an integrated assessment based on
comprehensive analysis consisting of6
7 S2" *spectrometric oil analysis, i.e., !ear metals+ for detecting polishing,
rubbing and corrosive !ear problems
7 P9 and:or &irect #eading ;errograph *&#+ for quantitative !ear measurements
of larger ferrous particles
7 0icroscopic filtergram and:or ferrogram !ear particle analysis to confirm
machine !ear modes and !ear severity levels
" /ey step in the assessment is the process of setting appropriate target levels
for various lubricated machines based on their structure, criticality, age, operation
and environment, etc. ;or example, the target cleanliness level of a gearbox
might range bet!een IS2 '<:'' and 4.:'= based on its do!ntime and
replacement costs, speed and load, component types, filtration effectiveness and
ris/ for contamination ingress. "fter establishing target levels, three lubrication
condition severity levels, 2ntarget, "lert and 5arning, !ere specified based on
a comparison of actual conditions to the target conditions.
On-target %he condition is !ithin the target limits>
Alert 2utside the target limits by as much as '- levels:grades. It is usually an
?abnormal? condition but no immediate actions to be ta/en> and
Warning 2utside the target limits by greater than - levels:grades, a ?severe?
condition that can lead to significant life reduction and failure.
%o differentiate machine !ear severity levels consistently, a !ear severity code
system developed by Lubrosoft !as deployed based on !ear particle
concentration, morphology and si@e distribution.
"n assessment of AA critical machines !as conducted. %he results of that
assessment are summari@ed in ;igure '. ;rom this assessment the team
reached the follo!ing conclusions6
7 " total of =48 of oil samples are outside the targeted cleanliness levels,
highlighting the need for a significant effort for cost effective contamination
control.
7 %he high level of abrasive particle contamination in lubricating oils is causing
severe machine !ear. %his high rate of !ear is reducing the life and increasing
the failure rate of components, escalating maintenance costs and undermining
reliability efforts.
Case I - Life Extension of the ilt able !earbox - Hot Strip "ill
%he tilt table gearbox is one of 4B gear units on the centrali@ed lubrication system
at the hot strip mill. It consists of a number of helical gears, shafts and rolling
element bearings. %he average life of the gearbox is currently '< months. %he
total replacement costs, including rebuilds and shutdo!n costs, are as much as
,'4B,... per year. " typical failure of the tilt table gearbox is characteri@ed by
;igures 4' to 4<.
%he teamCs previous efforts to improve reliability of the gearboxes !ere focused
on improving sealing of the interface bet!een the shafts and the case to prevent
ingress of mill scale, dust and !ater into the lubricating oil, and on increasing the
surface hardness of the gears to reduce !ear. Ho!ever, these actions failed to
extend the life of this gearbox.
%he ne! approach focused upon identifying the failure root causes through
systematic investigation and integrated measurements as described belo!6
Participation of o#erhaul and inspection of the failed gearboxes
%he failed components !ere visually inspected rather than 1ust reading
inspection reports and intervie!ing the maintenance people *the past practice+.
%his step revealed that the excessive !ear and scratching of both shaft and case
holes is the result of the excessive !ear and failure of the rolling element
bearings, rather than being caused by !ater and scale particle ingression. %his
finding significantly altered the teamCs attention to the premature failure of the
rolling element bearings.
"icroscopic exa$ination of the %orn surface $orphologies of
the bearing co$ponents
SD0 examination revealed that all surfaces of the inner and outer race!ays,
rollers and cages !ere characteri@ed by particleinduced !ear mechanisms. %he
results !ere as follo!s6
7 %he inner race!ay sho!s a typical rubbing !ear polished by tiny solid particles
in the lubricating oil *;igure -'+.
7 "brasive !ear !as apparent on the cages *;igure -4+.
7 %he outer race!ay indicated very early pitting !ear, appearing as small surface
indentations caused by hard, ?clearance si@e? solid particles in the lubricating oil
*;igure --+
7 0icrocrac/s originated and propagated from the indents *;igure -<+.
Co$prehensi#e oil & %ear particle anal'sis
"n oil sample !as ta/en from the lubricant that remained after overhauling the tilt
table gearbox. "nother sample !as ta/en from the centrali@ed lubricating system
of the finishing mill. Both ferrogram and filtergram analysis suggested that over
(B8 of solid particles in the gearbox oil sample !ere ferrous rubbing !ear
particles less than '. microns in si@e *;igure < and ;igure B+. %his finding
supports the conclusion that the excessive !ear and premature failure of the
rolling bearings is caused by the high concentration of abrasive solid particles in
the oil.
Co$paring the t%o oil sa$ples( conta$ination le#els
%he solid particle concentration in the sample ta/en for the gearbox sump is '.
times higher than the sample dra!n from the centrali@ed system. Li/e!ise, the
!ater content of the sump sample is 4= times that of the centrali@ed lubrication
system. Such high particle and !ater contamination levels can reduce the life of
rolling bearings by =. to (.8. %herefore, the real troublema/er leading to
premature failure of the tilt table gearbox !as found to be extremely
contaminated lubricating oil. ;urther digging revealed that the root cause for the
vast difference in contamination level bet!een the t!o samples is tied to poor oil
exchange efficiency bet!een this gearbox and centrali@ed lubrication system.
Based on the failure analysis and root cause identification, the team
recommended that target cleanliness levels in the tilt table gearboxes be strictly
maintained. &oing so !ill extend the life of the system from a current meantime
bet!eenfailure of '< months to an estimated -A to <= months. %he team has
high confidence in meeting or exceeding this life extension.
Case II - )educing *ailures %ith Lubricant Conta$ination
Control - he +o-%ist "ill
%he driving system of the Eo%!ist ;inishing 0ill, Ee!castle Steel!or/s operates
at very high speeds of over '4,... rpm and contains a large number of
lubricated components including A- gearsets, (( rolling element bearings and
<- 3levite bearings. &ue to the systemCs complex structure and propensity to fail
!ith little !arning *due to its high speed+, preventive maintenance is often limited
to detecting and isolating component failures. %o combat the high costs of failure,
a proactive maintenance strategy featuring effective lubricant contamination
control has been implemented to promote reliability.
Since '(=A, failures in the not!ist finishing mill have been significantly reduced
due to continuous improvements in lubricant contamination control. %he practice
has !or/ed in unison !ith the efforts to rationali@e mill operation and
maintenance practices, utili@ation of better seals and various condition monitoring
and inspection techniques. Fpdating the machines filtration systems !as a ma1or
component of the effort. Before the underta/ing, the system !as equipped !ith
G-. micron filters. "s the system filters !ere upgraded first to H'4 I )B *'4
micron+ in '(=A then HA I )B *six micron+ in '(==, the failure rates of the critical
3levite bearings !ere reduced from '4 failures in '(=B, to 1ust one failure in
'(==. "t the same time, the mill speed !as significantly increased from <A 0:S in
'(=B to '4. 0:S in '(==, placing additional strain on the components *;igure A+.
"fter achieving !orldclass performance in productivity and equipment reliability,
attention at the rod mill focused on further maintenance cost reduction and failure
reduction of the lubricated components in the not!ist finishing mill. " Lubrication
0aintenance Improvement *L0I+ tas/ !as established to identify opportunities to
reduce component failure rates and replacement costs for filter elements through
further optimi@ation of the existing lubricant filtration systems. %he process
included the follo!ing steps6
7 "nalysis of the effect of the particles on the various critical components.
7 #ationali@ation of the target cleanliness levels.
7 2ptimi@ation of filter location selection.
%he investigation revealed that most of the particles !ere rolling scale greater
than '. microns that entered through defective seals !ith the cooling !ater. %he
particles being generated !ere determined to be very small, posing little threat to
the systems. %herefore, filtration !as focused on the removal of the ingested mill
scale. Based upon analysis, bypass filtration !as deemed most suitable for
achieving the organi@ationCs goals.
Conclusions
7 Lubrication 0aintenance Improvement *L0I+ at BHP has been recogni@ed as a
strategic business area that contributes significantly to bottomline performance
through reduced maintenance costs and lost production due to poor reliability of
lubricated equipment.
7 Solid particle contamination of has been identified as the ma1or cause for
premature failure of the gearboxes. %he /ey component in cost effective solid
particle contamination control of lubrication systems is to initiate %arget
3leanliness Level *%3L+ to guide contamination monitoring activities, and to
rationali@e contamination control systems *filters, breathers and seals etc.+.
7 "n integrated approach plays an important role in understanding lubrication
related failures, eliminating the root causes that lead to failure and in developing
cost effective solutions for specific plant lubrication problems.