(800) 537-7683 SDS Contact Us Register / Sign in Applications Lubricants Reliability Solutions Industries Training About LE Electric Motor Lubrication Home » Applications » Electric Motor Lubrication Are you getting the most out of your electric motors? Motor life depends on bearing life, and bearing life depends on proper lubrication. Many electric motor failures are bearing related, with the bearings never reaching their intended life. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 70 percent of electricity consumed in industry comes from the use of electric motors, which make up 25 percent of all rotating equipment in a plant. This means that electric motors account for nearly 25 percent of the national consumption of electricity. What all of this means to you is that maximizing your lubrication reliability efforts with electric motors can have a dramatic impact on your uptime and costs, including repairs and replacements, labor, and energy use. Lubrication Engineers has the lubricants, reliability products and expertise to help you put together a complete program to help maximize electric motor bearing life, minimize lubrication problems, and increase safety levels. Identify Suffering Points Move forward with LE’s proven solutions for extending equipment life. Incorrect Grease Selection Selecting the right grease for electric motor applications can make all the difference in the protection and performance of bearings. Electric motors require lubricants with specific characteristics. Use of the wrong grease often leads to early electric motor failures. LE Solution The grease consistency preferred for electric motors is normally NLGI 2 or 3, with a base oil viscosity of 100-150 cSt @ 40°C. Other characteristics to look for include good channeling characteristics, low oil bleed, oxidation resistance, anti-wear additives, and mechanical stability. A polyurea thickener system is preferred for most electric motor applications, but grease with an aluminum complex, lithium complex or calcium sulfonate thickener are also good options. Incorrect Grease Application Common problems include overgreasing, undergreasing, and not greasing at all – all of which can lead to premature electric motor failures. Additionally, operators often have to manually grease in hard-to-reach or unsafe areas. LE Solution Your LE consultant can help determine correct lubrication amounts and intervals, and then help you choose which single-point lubricator will work best in your application. These precision lubrication tools provide a closed loop system to keep out contaminants, and they take the guesswork out of maintenance by supplying the right amount of grease for the application at the right time 24/7. Suitable for indoor and outdoor applications, SPLs decrease motor failures, reduce labor time and improve safety. Grease Cross-Contamination It is fairly common for a busy operator to pick up a grease gun and apply the wrong grease to the electric motor. When incompatible greases are mixed, the results can be catastrophic with severe loss of grease performance leading to bearing failure. LE Solution If manual lubrication is preferred, Clear Grease Guns are the solution for enabling the operator to see the grease before putting it in the application. When combined with a color identification and tagging system, Clear Grease Guns are part of a visual chain of custody for the maintenance operator – significantly reducing human error. Lubrication Engineers can help put together a lubrication reliability program for your electric motors to help them last longer, eliminating downtime and reducing maintenance costs. Our certified lubrication experts can be onsite to help put together a program that will bring lubrication excellence to your operation. Get started by finding your local LE consultant or registering to purchase online. Need a product recommendation? Click here to get started. Polyurea Grease Aluminum Complex Grease Lithium Complex Grease Calcium Sulfonate Complex Grease Xport™ Single-Point Lubricators Xport™ Clear Grease Guns Brochures Brochures - Translations Chart Techni-Tips Testimonial Terms of Service Terms and Conditions of Sale Privacy Policy Sitemap LE operates under an ISO 9001:2015 Certified Quality System. 1919 E. Tulsa | Wichita, KS 67216 Tel: (800) 537-7683 | info@le-inc.com © 2021 Lubrication Engineers, All Rights Reserved Translate » We're offline