Machinery Lubrication May June 2014 May June 2014 | Page 23

Purchasing
Lubricants Based on
Performance
BY THOMAS L. L ANTZ , L ANTZ CONSULTING SERVICES

Lubricants initially arrive in industrial
plants usually via one of two methods:
1. New equipment generally comes
with a “lubricant list” from the
equipment supplier with a few
recommendations
for
each
application. Brand names are
typically listed, a selection is made
and, if it works satisfactorily, it is
chosen.
2. Maintenance personnel express
concern to a supplier or a competitor
about a lubricant’s performance,
and a change is made.
There are other ways lubricants are
acquired, but in each case, maintenance
personnel don’t know why a product
does or does not work; they simply
accept the outside expert’s opinion. In
these situations, maintenance workers
may not realize there are several
products in the plant with different
brand names but similar characteristics.
They may be unknowingly contributing
to the proliferation of products in the
plant. Without understanding what
makes the products work, the
maintenance person may be reluctant
to consolidate. In this case, there is
little encouragement for competition
and no reason for any oil company to
lower its prices. Naturally, maintenance
personnel want their equipment to have
the highest quality lubricants but at a
reasonable price. How can this be

accomplished?
Jim Fitch’s “Hazards of Changing
Lubricant Brands” article in the
November-December 2013 issue of
Machinery Lubrication put the
maintenance person’s concerns in
perspective. The article brought to
mind a system that was developed and
used for many years at a U.S. steel
company. In order to address the
concerns discussed in Fitch’s article, the
company established a system whereby
lubricants and hydraulic fluids were
purchased
by
performance
specifications. If a product worked in
an application satisfactorily, it was
tested to determine which ASTM tests
(or others) it would pass that were
relevant to the application. A
specification was then written around
those test results that could be placed
out for bid by the purchasing
department. If a lower bid was received,
the competitor was asked to submit a
sample to an independent lab to verify
a few very important requirements. If
successful, the lowest bidder was
awarded the business for a specific
period.
Lubricants are unique in that objective
lab tests are available to the user that
will predict field performance. Very few
maintenance products have this
advantage.

This article will outline the pros and
cons of using a specification system,
how to launch such a system and make
it work, and how to handle exceptions.
If a company’s lubricant purchases are
substantial and could benefit from a
10- to 15-percent reduction in costs,
this system may offer an advantage
while assuring only the highest quality
lubricants are used in the equipment.

What is a Performance
Specification?
Every lubricant and hydraulic fluid has
a detailed list of tests that must be
passed at the oil company before it is
released for shipment. The experts at
the oil company know how the fluid
must perform in your equipment.
Several organizations (ASTM, SAE,
etc.) have devised lab tests that will
measure various aspects of this
performance.
For instance, because viscosity and
viscosity index are very important in
most lubricants, numerous tests have
been devised and agreed upon by
industry experts to measure these
parameters. Figure 1 provides a list of
some of the more common tests for oil
and grease.
Once a list of important performance
specifications is compiled for a given
product such as a gear oil, any

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