Steven Carbone
Technical Education Committee Member
Industrial Electro-Mechanics

As service organizations, we must continue to find ways to improve our customers’ reliability and reduce unplanned downtime. Studies have shown that 40-60% of electric motor failures are associated with bearings. This provides a great opportunity to support your customers with proactive maintenance that can have immediate and positive impacts on their operational state. Whether this technology is a recommendation after a service center motor inspection or being aware of their challenges associated with bearing reliability, your customers will be better off knowing about this technology and how your company can support them.

Ultrasonic Lubrication as a Technology
Ultrasound technology is used extensively throughout industrial facilities with the most common being airborne ultrasound aiding in identification of compressed air leaks and faulty valves. It is suited for the 20+ kHz high frequency range of sound, which is well beyond a human’s ability to hear. Because of this, ultrasound itself is one of the earliest warning technologies when looking at time with regards to the P-F curve (Figure 1).

This same technology can be used for bearing lubrication as an aid to identifying bearings requiring lubrication. Rather than OEM time-based recommendations, which may not be appropriate for the real world operating conditions of your customers' electric motors, ultrasonic lubrication offers quantitative data that indicates a change in friction between the balls and raceways shown in decibel values. The technology works exceptionally well for the proactive management of bearing life before other tools like vibration analysis can identify an issue. Oftentimes, it is too late for a bearing if vibration analysis has picked up fault frequencies and now you are just managing the degradation. Even worse, once a bearing issue is heard with the human ear, your time to failure is imminent. The result of ultrasound lubrication is appropriately greased bearings for a longer life and the ability to long-term plan when that bearing does start to degrade.

There are various manufacturers and levels of ultrasonic lubrication tools. Some are simple with a headset and a decibel reading, but others will give you the ability to set alarms, make field notes and collect spectral data. The collection of spectral data is similar to vibration analysis with regards to identifying fault frequencies, but again, it gives you an opportunity to be more proactive with these faults once they do develop. Often, the bearing fault frequencies will not show up on typical vibration spectrums until the defects are more prominent. Ultimately, bearings will fail. However, with this technology, you can give all the information to your customer in a well laid out, data-driven format, so they can make the best decisions for their operations. (Figures 2A, 2B and 2C)

Ultrasonic Lubrication as a Service
Our customers expect us to be the experts when dealing with their electric motors. We see end-user maintenance teams shrinking in size, requiring EASA members to step in and help close the gaps. With so many motors failing due to bearing issues, maintaining responsibility over the lubrication and analysis of their motor bearings is a great value add, which will continue to strengthen your relationship with them as a partner for success. Ultrasonic lubrication requires effort to implement appropriately, but entering the market from an equipment and management standpoint requires less than some of the other preventative and predictive technologies in our industry.

Not only will your customers benefit from the correct grease type being applied at the correct quantity and interval, but they also will gain another set of eyes on their critical assets. This additional technician can identify and report on reliability and safety issues that may be present with a particular piece of equipment. There are plenty of broken coupling guards or leaking hoses out there that your customer could benefit from receiving a report on.

Technician
Having the correct person within your organization is critical to the success of bringing this technology to your customers. This person should understand reliability centered maintenance and have the proactive mindset willing to solve problems. This individual may already perform field services for your business, and it will be a straightforward technology to add to their toolkit. If you do not have an internal candidate already, consider recruiting one to help develop the reliability services side of your business. These services in general will continue to be a major industry that will only increase in demand as end users continue to raise the bar higher for operational excellence (Figure 3).

Equipment
There are multiple manufacturers of hardware specifically suited for ultrasonic lubrication. Be sure to do the appropriate research to determine what works best for your customers, their expectations and your budget. A great aspect of this technology is that you can offer advanced reporting and the ability to confirm, per asset, the type and quantity of lubrication used. This may not be necessary for all customers, so consider a simpler solution. You may also consider choosing equipment that includes airborne ultrasound functionality in order to grow additional ultrasound aspects of your business.

Training
As with all technologies and services, training is critical to the success of your organization and your customers. There is specific training for ultrasound lubrication available that can be completed either online or in-person. Make sure you choose a training provider that includes general introductory information regarding ultrasound technology. You may also consider a provider that introduces reliability concepts if your chosen technician may need that support.

Conclusion
As EASA service organizations, we must continue to find ways to partner with our customers and solve their reliability challenges. With so many bearing failures out there, this is a great way to solve what may be a big headache for some. Separate yourself from the competition and offer this high value solution.