We hope this presentation was helpful to other
maintenance folks. The author would like to hear any comments or answer any questions
at - Questions to Chuck Lyons (click here)
Questions:
Dear Chuck,
I went through your presentation, and think
that the use of P-K bottles will help to improve the bearing life. But I have a
question: in case the bottle breaks due to some external force, all the
lubricating oil will drain off from the bearing housing and the bearings will
starve of oil and will fail un-noticed, which will be the catastrophic failure
and can lead to safety hazard. Is there any protection provided to avoid such
type of failure?
D.R.Patil
DY Unit Manager, Rotating Equipment
HPCL,
Chuck Lyons’ response:
Mr. Patil:
The presentation that you viewed was intended
for use with my discussion presented at a machinery conference. One slide
pointed out some "Drawbacks" in the use of the P-K bottle. You
are correct, they can be broken off resulting in a rapid loss of lube oil and a
catastrophic failure. Winter time use and cracking of the bottle by
frozen collected water is another problem. We use them widely in refineries
here in the U.S. I know of no device available to prevent the
above. I would suggest that you carefully evaluate the pluses and minuses
before using these at your facilities.
Chuck Lyons,
Chevron Asphalt
Maintenance