In this insightful interview, KB Mathur, Founder and Director, Global Technical Services, emphasises the importance of maintaining clean lubricants and leveraging advanced technologies for optimal plant operations and cost efficiency.
How is the Total Lubrication Management system relevant for the Indian cement industry?
Lubricating oil in a machine is like blood in the human body. Cement industry in India or anywhere in the world operates in dust conditions and their mines operate under heavier dust conditions. Keeping lubricants (oil and grease) clean as possible is the prime requirement for the machine’s operations and maintenance. This is our fundamental approach for providing services of ‘Total Lubrication Management’ to the cement industry.
Hence, a major factor for keeping lubricants in good condition and clean starts from storage, handling and dispensing of lubricants in a cement plant.
Our company, Global Technical Services (GTS) is working at several sites to ensure clean lubricating oil and grease are fed to machines. This is a primary requirement of machine life, reliability and continuous production.
We have developed special containers with colour coding to feed clean and uncontaminated oils to various machines in plants and mines. We call these containers ‘Dust Free Containers’ and they are colour coded for various families of lubricating oils – such as hydraulic oils, gear oils, etc.
We work according to our standard operating procedures (SOP) and the main activity is to keep the oil / grease clean, so that we achieve improved reliability in the plant operation and improved mechanical maintenance. This is of great importance and shall lead to productivity and improved profitability to our customers operating cement plants and mines.
How does automation and technology come handy in setting up the lubrication process at a cement plant?
Cement plants operate under very stringent conditions as they are process plants – working continuously for months or years. A dedicated team of lubrication technicians is required to keep and adopt good lubrication practices and lubricants in clean condition. Periodical testing of lubricants is required to ensure lubricating oils are in good condition. This is done at an oil testing laboratory.
When a used oil sample is sent to an oil testing laboratory, the test report is normally received after 7 to 10 days. However, in case the test report is not received within 48 hours – the mechanical damage can set into the machines, hence GTS has a site oil testing laboratory at all sites where GTS is working and implements Total Lubrication Management. The site oil testing laboratory provides the test report within 36 hours and corrective maintenance action can be taken. This is a vital need of Lubrication Management Services at cement plants and mines.
To keep oil clean, fifth generation oil filtration systems are required. The new technology for oil filtration for removing water/moisture, besides contamination, is adopted by GTS in the filtration machine. Used oil is filtered and produced oil free of moisture and cleanliness can be measured by ISOVG 4406 Spec., which needs hydraulic oil to be cleaned to NASS 6-7 values, the need for hydraulic oil cleanliness.
With the arrival of Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP), the oil analysis can lead to meaningful results through ICP, which can give accurate reports on wear metals and total contamination besides additive depletion in the oil. With this, we can adopt a proper filtration system cleaning the oil and bring it to the level of ‘As New Oil’. Once this is adopted it can lead to oil conservation of oil to the extent of 30 to 40 percent. Oil conservation is an important need of the day, as we at GTS always work towards – ‘Save Oil – Oil will not last forever’.
What impact can proper lubrication create on the cost efficiency and productivity of cement plants?
Good lubrication practices are very important for cement plants and their mining operations for the following reasons:
- They are continuous process plants, and run for a year continuously and stop only during scheduled shut down
- They operate under very dusty conditions
- All cement plants have heavy rotary equipment such as raw mills, kiln, cement mills, etc.
- The operating conditions are stringent like high temperature, dusty environment, etc.
The above operating facts offer challenges for establishing ‘good lubrication practices’, so that cement plant’s reliability can be maintained. Hence, good lubrication is of paramount importance for operation of cement plants.
A basic requirement is to maintain quality of lubricants and greases manufactured by standard and reputed oil companies. The specification of the oil is therefore to be maintained and oil to be kept in clean condition to avoid any contamination with dust, dirt or moisture. This contamination has to be kept under control for good mechanical maintenance. Any breakdown in cement plant operation is very costly, affecting production.
Therefore, it is essential for cement plants to invest in good lubrication practices by having dedicated manpower, doing lubrication, keeping oil clean by use of filtration machines, oil testing laboratory at site, to ensure quality of oil as per specifications and take corrective action, when required.
How do you maintain quality for the lubricant products provided to the cement manufacturers?
Oil and grease barrels should be kept indoors. If space limitations make it impossible to keep all the oil barrels indoors, then the grease barrels must be kept indoors. The oil stored in outdoor barrels should be kept between 30°C and 90°C, covered with tarpaulin, or placed under a shed specifically developed for outdoor oil storage. Grease barrels cannot be kept outdoors because grease is a suspension of oil in soap. If grease barrels are stored outdoors, the heat will cause the oil and soap to separate, making the grease unfit for use.
Oil received from suppliers should be handled carefully at the site to prevent any barrels from being damaged during unloading. If barrels are not carefully unloaded, they can be damaged, causing oil to spill. GTS takes utmost care to ensure that the oil in service is as clean as possible, without any contamination. This ensures good maintenance practices and the reliability required in any industry, especially in cement plants, which operate in dusty environments.
The storage, handling and dispensing of lubricants and greases are very important because the oil is produced under high-quality control by the oil companies. After the oil is received and stored carefully, ensure there is no contamination from barrel breathing. The oil should then be dispensed to the machines using suitable containers, preferably dust-free containers with colour coding. Cement plants should not use open-mouth conical containers, as these can accumulate dust from the cement industry environment.
GTS has specifically developed containers called ‘Dust-free Containers’, which are colour-coded for different families of oil: hydraulic oil (blue), gear oil (green), and engine oil (red), among others. GTS uses its own colour-coding system to ensure that the lubricating oils, which are fed to the machines, are contamination-free.
How often do you audit or review your implemented systems?
We conduct regular reviews of each site where we provide Total Lubrication Management Services:
- Greasing in the plant is a major activity. Greasing schedules are monitored daily, and any deviations must be corrected the next day.
- Oil sample testing is done at the site laboratory and the main laboratory for detailed analysis, where ICP testing is required. The number of samples to be tested depends on the size of the plant and mines, and these samples are audited monthly.
- Total oil filtration is performed and used in plant machines after testing (weekly review).
- Oil conservation is important as it helps control oil wastage.
- Oil and grease consumption is reviewed on a weekly and monthly basis, with trend analysis conducted.
The above parameters are reviewed at the site on a weekly and monthly basis as well as at our Mumbai office.
The GTS Site In-charge provides this information to the TLM Coordinator at the site on a daily basis. We provide weekly and monthly reports to the entire Plant Management team, which we call the Monthly Technical Activity Report (MTAR).
We work in association with the TLM Coordinator on a daily basis. The TLM Coordinator serves as the primary contact person from the mechanical and maintenance department of each plant where we provide our services. Additionally, we have Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that detail every activity to be performed at the site. A copy of the SOP is available at every plant with the unit head, mechanical head, and TLM Coordinator. The SOP incorporates every system of our work, ensuring smooth implementation of lubrication management at the plants and their mines.
How do you incorporate sustainability in your process and operations?
Sustainability is one of the most important requirements today in any industry. We have mentioned earlier that ‘Oil Never Dies’ and also ‘Oil will not last forever’. Hence, handling oil carefully without any spillage or wastages or leakages is of paramount importance while handling and dispensing of lubricants into the machines. In case the oil is not handled with utmost care as per the prescribed norms, it can lead to spilling, which will lead to loss of oil and slippery floors.
One of the major requirements today for technicians using lubricants, whether petroleum-based or synthetic, is to completely eliminate oil spillage through careful handling, in order to achieve sustainability. We place a significant emphasis on oil conservation and also adopt the principles of Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. Implementing these practices could result in saving at least 30 per cent to 40 per cent of lubricants in any industry.
We must do used oil filtration and test filtered oil within the site laboratory and accordingly using it for top-up or any other use as per the test report, will save considerable number of lubricants in the industry. In future, oil recycling is going to be the major activity and will be required to be done at all the plants. A cost reduction is important to save lubricants for sustainability.
We cannot afford to throw out oil due to ecological/environmental reasons and therefore reclamation of used oil is a highly focused area and will have a big effect on sustainability, besides reducing costs in manufacturing.
We make best efforts to save lubricating oil by testing oils regularly in the laboratory. In the cement industry, there are many locations where loss of application is required using oils / greases such as chain, pulleys, etc. and where used oil beyond filtration can be used for all loss applications.
What are the major challenges that you have had to face and overcome in terms of lubrication for the cement industry?
We initiated Total Lubrication Management Services for the cement industry approximately
23 years ago, in the year 2001-02. It is now well-established, and we do not face any major challenges in the cement industry because the personnel working in the industry understand the importance of Total Lubrication Management on a Single Window Basis at their plants.
Initially, our challenges included setting up a robust Central Lubrication Cell (CLC), which serves as a single location for carrying out the work of Total Lubrication Management for the entire plant. Now, these facilities are standardised and accepted by most plants. For mines included in our scope, we set up a separate CLC due to distance.
The CLC is where we operate Lubrication Management services for the entire plant (or mines). We maintain a 15-day inventory of oil and grease at the CLC. Handling and dispensing of lubricating oils or greases are conducted from this location, along with the setup of an Oil Testing Laboratory at the site for the Central Lubrication Cell of the Plant. Hence, this area is specially built to cater to all our activities. We prioritise maintaining ‘good housekeeping’ at the CLC to ensure clean oil is fed to machines.
Maintaining good housekeeping at the CLC is our prime requirement. Additionally, our next challenge is manpower. We have to train them according to our needs, and finding competent manpower has become increasingly difficult. Sometimes, our manpower has to work for 14 to 16 hours. Apart from this, we have no other major problems in implementing Total Lubrication Management at various sites.
Tell us about the innovations that can be seen in the near future by Global Technical Services.
We wish to achieve the following in the cement industry in the near future.
- We have already initiated a training programme for GTS personnel/technicians at sites to enhance the quality of our day-to-day services in providing Total Lubrication Management as per our SOP.
- The cement industry utilises large quantities of lubricating oils, primarily gear oil and hydraulic oils. These oils can be regenerated to the level of ‘As-New Oil.’ Since we have an on-site oil testing laboratory, the regenerated lubricants/oils can be tested and reused. This will provide a significant and cost-effective service, allowing us to save a considerable amount of lubricating oil in the industry. To achieve this objective, we will utilise 5th generation oil filtration systems. These systems absorb water/moisture as well as all suspended impurities, wear debris, etc.
- With the availability of sensors and software, we aim to implement online oil condition monitoring for all critical and major equipment in the cement plant. This will enhance mechanical maintenance as a continuous process, which is a major expense in any industry.
– Kanika Mathur