Case Study I Lubricants I Lubrication of clamshell buckets and orange peel buckets

Problem

Heavy equipment used in marine civil engineering has many components that require grease lubrication. However, due to the harsh working environment, marine civil engineering operations are highly susceptible to issues such as grease emulsification.

This customer, who carries out breakwater construction and the installation and removal of wave-dissipating blocks across Japan, was also struggling with frequent grease loss in the attachments of their crane vessels. In particular, clamshell buckets and orange peel buckets, which are submerged in seawater during operations, experienced high grease consumption. To prevent loss of the lubricating film, they used expensive grease yet still needed to reapply it every half day.

Clamshell Buckets

Orange Buckets

Result

We proposed introducing “Premalube” to reduce both grease consumption and the labor required for re-lubrication. The results were as follows:

• The price per grease unit was reduced by approximately 20%
• An adequate lubrication film could be maintained with just one application per day
• Annual grease consumption was reduced to about half of the previous level
• Reduced grease price and usage led to a significant decrease in overall grease procurement costs

NCH successfully reduced both re-lubrication labor and grease procurement costs through Premalube’s superior anti-emulsification performance. In addition, by lowering overall grease consumption, we helped reduce environmental impact.

NCH Asia Pacific delivers optimal lubrication solutions that help protect equipment, reduce costs and maintenance effort, and minimize environmental impact for our customers.