Lubricant standards change caused problems

Historically, a major UK mineral water processing company has used a mineral oil for lubrication of an air compressor, but a lubricants regulation change generated problems with new lubricants.

Historically, this major UK Mineral Water processing company have used a mineral oil for lubrication of their Bellis and Morcom WH21 (230KW) air compressor with oil change intervals on an annual basis.

A change in company policy however demanded the use of USDA H1 "food grade" lubricants across the site rendering mineral based, non food grade, lubricants unacceptable! As the compressor was itself considered a critical component in production terms it was deemed that a higher performance, fully synthetic, lubricant should be used.

Kluber Summit HySyn FG100, a fully synthetic USDA H1 food grade compressor oil, was selected for this application.

After 12 months use the oil was analysed by the Chemical Engineering department at Kluber Lubrication, Munich, who indicated the lubricant was still useable within the compressor for a further 12 months production duty cycle! This trial certainly managed to "win over" an extremely sceptical Compressor Service Engineer who had said 3 years previously, this oil is not "black enough and man enough for the job"! The same Engineer recently returned more than two years later to change the oil, which he had previously changed annually, to find the bearing shells and crankcase journals cleaner than previously experienced! Within two years of operation the compressor did not even require topping up! Kluber Summit HySyn FG100 is now the approved site oil for this extreme industrial application.

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