Grease Offers High Performance Under Heat

As part of their comprehensive approach to lubrication, Shell lubricants companies have developed a new polyurea grease, Shell Stamina 0511, designed to offer excellent performance in heavy industry bearings and provide operators with reduced maintenance levels, blockage-free centralised lubrication system operation, improved bearing life and increased uptime. Unlike traditional soap greases, the polyurea formulation of Shell Stamina 0511 has a high resistance to extreme temperatures, enabling heavy industry operators to improve bearing cleanliness and reduce costs associated with grease deposits. Pierre Vispoel, marketing manager Speciality Lubricants Europe for Shell Lubricants comments: 'High operating temperatures, such as those found in steel or cement industry bearings, can cause calcium or lithium complex greases to oxidise. The high temperatures will then effectively cook the grease, causing it to form solid deposits in the bearings.' Shell Stamina 0511 will not separate or harden in high temperatures, reducing the risks of bearing damage caused by the grease losing its lubrication properties during oxidation, and equipment failure resulting from grease deposits clogging the bearings. This high performance will help provide operators with cost savings by prolonging bearing life and reducing maintenance levels, and long periods of unplanned downtime associated with cleaning or replacing bearings. The grease's excellent resistance to high temperatures and gel structure break down will help operators to realise further cost savings and operational performance benefits by reducing lubrication system blockages. Vispoel adds: 'Gel structure destruction can lead to the grease hardening in the equipment's centralised lubrication system, increasing the risk of grease starvation and resulting accelerated bearing wear and equipment failure.' A leading steel manufacturer has reported estimated cost savings of approximately US$300,000 since switching from a calcium complex grease to Shell Stamina 0511. Changing to the high performance polyurea grease enabled the operator to reduce grease consumption by approximately 11MT per month, while eliminating lubrication system blockages and deposits in the operator's continuous casting equipment bearings. Vispoel concludes: 'Although many heavy industry bearings have cooling systems to prevent overheating and safeguard productivity, other operational factors, such as incidental liquid steel spilling in continuous casting and poor cooling conditions in the cooling section of cement plant kilns, can lead to extreme rises in temperature. Shell Stamina 0511 has been developed to provide operators with continuous lubrication in these circumstances, enabling them to protect equipment performance and productivity against unplanned downtime.'