Saving money with lubricants - price alone doesn't cut it.
Everyone always tries to buy cheaper. Lubricants can also significantly contribute to cost reduction in your operation. However, negotiating with suppliers is only one side of the coin. Thanks to smart selection and conscious use, there is still much more potential in lubricants.
Together instead of alone
When placing an order, the purchaser usually selects the cheapest product based on general and supposedly comparable specifications. However, this often does not result in actual savings. Price is often a subjective criterion. Some higher-quality products allow for longer service intervals, reduce friction and wear, and thus lower energy and maintenance costs. However, purchasing departments typically lack the knowledge about how much cost savings a better but initially more expensive oil can provide. Therefore, always consult specialists from maintenance before placing an order. This way, you contribute objectively to choosing the lubricant that is technically and economically most favorable in the long term.
New energy for old treasures
Are your machines and equipment a bit older? Then please be careful with lubricant recommendations!
Today, there are often much more powerful oils and greases than those listed in the old manuals. Modern products allow for longer service intervals and significantly higher performance. Don’t keep ordering the old types out of habit. Request the latest lubricant recommendation lists from your machine manufacturers or research online. Get advice from your lubricant supplier. Or use the consulting service provided by OELCHECK.
Optimized oil service intervals
Modern high-performance lubricants are generally oxidation-stable long-runners. Extended oil change intervals over several years can significantly reduce costs in the long term.
After all, they not only lower the procurement costs for lubricants but also the costs for their disposal and the labor involved in changing them. Additionally, when oil is only renewed as necessary, less waste oil is generated, which eases the environmental burden. This also complies with legal regulations on waste reduction for non-renewable resources.
With OELCHECK-lubricant analyses, optimal re-lubrication intervals and condition-dependent, operationally safe oil change periods can be determined. The effort for you is minimal. Tailored analysis kits are available for all machine components, combining the required test methods. Their prices are completely transparent, allowing you to precisely calculate the costs.
The oil specialists give a clear diagnosis on how long reliable lubrication can be ensured until the next analysis under similar operating conditions.
Trend analyses secure operations
Important changes in oil and machinery often go unnoticed today because the "grease expert" who used to report such incidents to the maintenance technician a few years ago has been phased out. To avoid unexpected failures, elaborate computer programs are now used to implement "preventive maintenance" accordingly.
However, this system can be quite costly. It can become even more expensive if, despite all calculations, damage or machine failure occurs. An effective and cost-efficient alternative is the support of "condition-based maintenance" based on trend analyses.
These diagnoses involve lubricant analyses conducted at regular intervals without changing the oil. The lubricant serves as an ideal carrier of information. Each diagnosis refers to previous tests, and even small changes are observed and commented on.
The oil experts not only indicate when the oil needs to be changed but also detect wear and impending damage in time, thereby optimizing maintenance costs.
Less is often more
The thoughtful use of modern, mostly synthetic lubricants offers enormous potential for rationalization. Take a close look at the oils and greases used in your operation. Obtain the data sheets from your suppliers and the latest lubricant recommendation lists from the machine manufacturers.
When comparing, you will find that some products have an almost identical performance range. In many companies, simply by smartly simplifying the range, the variety of lubricants can be reduced by about 30%. This saves costs in ordering and inventory management. However, often only a specialist can objectively compare the individual types. If you need assistance, our consulting service is available to help you.
Well maintained means long-lasting lubrication
If you regularly monitor the condition of your lubricants through analyses, you will often be advised on oil maintenance measures that you should improve if you want to avoid an oil change. These include, for example, optimized oil filtration, the installation of additional bypass filters or separators, better water removal, or simply replacing filter cartridges instead of an oil change, which often alone does not solve the problem.
Nobody is perfect
Unfortunately, sources of error lurk everywhere. But you can drastically reduce them. Are your employees trained? Do they know all the tricks for monitoring and maintaining lubricants, for re-lubrication, topping up, and oil changes? Are oil samples taken correctly to ensure that the analysis yields a representative result? And what about the storage and handling of oils and greases?
You can find valuable tips on this in our already published article: Here’s how the professionals do it – storage and handling of lubricants
