About Be a LUBExpert
We created this website to help you Grease Bearings Right.
Machinery lubrication remains the single biggest factor affecting asset reliability. Getting it right contributes to a long, trouble-free service life. But get it wrong, as so many do, and expect unplanned breakdowns, reactive firefighting, drained resources, and a culture of unreliability.
Why Grease Machines
We’ve been using lubricants to fight friction for more than 4000 years. Born out of practical necessity, it helps machines function with less effort and energy. Grease, and more specifically oil, helps create separation between opposing wear surfaces producing beneficial friction levels and moderate operating temperatures. When applied optimally, and for the duration of the asset’s life, our machines can enjoy a life cycle that stretches far longer than the original engineered specification.
Machinery lubrication is a deeply complex science best carried out by trained personnel.
Lube Technician Moving Toward Extinction?
There was a time not too long ago, when machinery lubrication was a job performed by experts; By a person – or a team of people – who understood every asset in the complex and the effects lubrication had for each machine. The “Lube Technician” was arguably the most important contributor to reliability.
Lube techs, with their finger on the pulse of the plant, administered the oily “life blood” which flowed through its veins. They understood what happened when this task was performed poorly. They knew that without control and discipline, the chance to imbue precision results was scant. To get the most life possible from a machine they knew they had to “Grease Bearings Right”.
Gradually these experts are disappearing. Some retired and were not replaced. Others were promoted or moved to different areas of maintenance. Sadly, their knowledge wasn’t passed down to new generations. And for one reason or another, the job of lube technician lost its lustre.
Today, in many industries, the lube-tech is viewed as a low-wage job to be performed by untrained personnel. The moniker of “Grease Monkey” is often used to further tarnish this discipline. Is the expertise of the lube tech at risk of becoming extinct?
This couldn’t be more wrong. SDT views the lube tech as an authority. Properly trained, lube techs have the potential to transform asset reliability. Not only do they ensure that machines are kept in good working order, but when something is not quite right, they are the first to know and report on it.
Why "Be A LUBExpert"?
Grease guns don’t kill bearings… people kill bearings. A lube-technician without knowledge and experience can inflict terrible, irreversible carnage on a machine with just one pull of the grease gun trigger. And like a tube of toothpaste, once squeezed there’s no pushing it back inside.
People become trained LUBExperts because they are passionate about doing things the right way. It’s a constant pursuit of elusive perfection. The path to precision bearing lubrication is not always clear but a LUBExpert anticipates barriers, navigates them, and refuses to settle for shortcuts.
Traits of a LUBExpert
- Understands the differences between time-based and condition-driven grease regimes.
- Views machinery lubrication as a precise science.
- Documents every action with justification why.
- Has successfully completed LUBExpert Essentials Part 1 and 2.
- Identifies challenges and faces them head-on rather than avoiding them.
- Knows that nothing works without a strategy, driven by data.