By Jim Fitch
Machinery Lubrication Magazine
When it comes to modern concepts in the field of lubrication and applied tribology, many users these days are far more sophisticated than those who are designing and building the machines they operate.
This lack of sophistication by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is very evident when you see what’s not included with the sale of new machinery. One could assume that what’s missing from the machine and its documentation is functionally missing from the knowledge and awareness of the engineers and builders of this equipment. Ignorance is not bliss. The same is true for complacency.
Reliability needs to have shared responsibility. It must be fixed in the DNA of the machine as well as in the minds of operators and maintainers. It’s like a reliability chain; every link in the chain must be equally strong in order for the chain’s full length to bear the load.
Machinery Lubrication magazine is primarily devoted to advanced concepts in lubrication from a user’s perspective, more specifically lubrication-enabled reliability. Users not only have a significant influence on machine reliability during operation but also by what is being done (or not done) by equipment builders to “ready” machines for optimum reliability. They want the machine’s design to have an implanted genetic code that enables reliability.