Lubricant Selection and LIS: Fight the Current Lack of Supply

Jim Fitch wrote a pretty comprehensive article recently, going into the finer minutia of what to do when you can't get the lubricants that you normally use. I wanted to take some time and give you a pretty good strategy to help mitigate some of the woes of having to swap suppliers to get the lubricants that your machines need for proper operation.

- Jeremie Edwards

First off, don't be brand loyal. The lubricant manufacturers aren't paying your bills. They aren't loyal to you - they sell to your competitors. Unfortunately, you just aren't that special to them, so you don't owe them anything.

Formulations might be "unique" from brand to brand, but that doesn't mean that your current lubricant is the only one that can get the job done (and done well).

Start looking at the technical specifications for these lubricants and the specific needs of the equipment versus looking for a specific brand of lubricant.

Technical Specs

One of the first things you are going to want to do is label your oils. Not the way that most folks do it, with the brand name and whatever iteration of oil/grease it is, but with the technical specifications for the given lubricant.