When the team at RG Group’s Fluid Component Services Division encounter challenging applications, they act to meet those challenges. Bill Jarvis, Fluid Component Service’s Business Unit Manager, observed a market need for an affordable closed loop oil lube system. Providing an answer to this need required that the system meet the following criteria. First, the system needed to provide lubrication to multiple bearings. Second, the supply of lubricant to each bearing needed to be independently controlled. Third, the system needed to cool the lubricating fluid. Fourth, the lubricating fluid needed to be clean. As they often do when asked to solve challenging applications, the FCS team chose to meet the challenge by designing an “in house” solution.
By designing in additional flexibility, the FCS team created a system capable of meeting the needs of many different industries. Though additional options are available, features of the basic FCS Closed Loop Oil Lube System include: four independently controlled lubrication circuits, fine metering of circuit flow rates between 0.50 and 7 G/HR, 10 gallon oil reservoir, fluid cooling circuit, fluid filtration, and works with fluids with viscosity rates to 600 SUS. By adding additional metering valves and flow meters the system can provide lubrication for up to 15 bearings.
Although, they had meet the technical requirements of their proposed closed loop lube system, FCS still needed to make the system affordable. With the cost of installing many Closed Loop Oil Lube Systems exceeding $10,0001, the FCS System’s price of $5,600 is quite affordable. Especially considering that the basic FCS System is capable of lubricating four bearings. That feature drops the cost to $1,400 per bearing. Additional costs in commissioning a closed loop lube system may be incurred with the installation of lubrication fittings and lines. However, considered the cost of the FCS System against the costs associated with replacing damaged bearings, the return on investment can be considerable. Oh, and by the way, the folks at FCS can also install any necessary fittings and lines. If you would like to learn more about the FCS-LUBE6BJ Closed Loop Oil Lube System, please contact Lee Sigmon at [email protected]
1 Hink, Russ: Converting Bearings from Grease-Lubricated to Oil-Lubricated, (Machinery Lubrication: Noria Publication, 11/ 2001).