THE CURRENT STATUS OF HEAVY-DUTY OPEN GEAR DRIVE LUBRICATION

Since the enactment of environmental regulations in North America and other regions of the world affecting the use of chlorinated solvents, and the disposal of used lubricants, the practice of lubricating heavy -duty open gear drives has been in a state of evolution, One result of these changes is the proliferation of new lubricants professing to be environmentally more acceptable, This, in turn, has burdened gear man ufacturers with the need to sanction the use of lubricants which exhib it nontraditional physical and performance characteristics, In many ca ses this has led to confusion at the end-user level, Another result ha s been the rationalization by lubricant suppliers and gear manufacture rs that the physical and performance differences between the older, mo re traditional products, and these next generation products, demands r e-education at the end-user level. At a minimum, lubricant usage, the monitoring of drive performance, and overall drive maintenance practic es must be addressed, This paper attempts to draw a more clear picture of the current state of heavy duty open gear drive lubrication, reali zing this remains somewhat a topic of great debate.