Methods of Application of Gear oils to Heavy Duty Gears

Older equipment employing heavy duty gears may make use of bath systems   for application. Many  plants  have  converted  such  systems  to  circulating  application such as  is used  on most  modern  machinery. By  this  means, oil sprays  can  be  directed  to  the line  of  meshing  of the  gear  teeth and  if  necessary the  oil can be supplied  to  other  machine  components, such  as  bearings. By  this  means, when  accompanied with  proper auxiliary equipment, such as coolers, filters, settling tanks etc., the life of the oil is prolonged and contaminants removed.

Abrasive or cutting wear

Gear oils are not correctives for abrasive wear because here the action is due to hard particles between the gear face as they mesh. If the abrasive is due to loose metal, sand, etc; gear oils may wash the foreign particles from the moving areas, but unless the abrasives settle out they will continue to act as lapping compounds. However, if the viscosity of the gear oil is low, the large foreign particles may be deposited in areas where the velocity of the oil is low, and thus they will be harmless.

The best corrective for abrasive wear of gears is to drain and flush out the gear case and refill with clean oil. Circulating oil systems used for gear oils can be equipped with filters or strainers. Likewise, a settling period can be provided in the storage system for the fluid. Some gear cases in automotive  vehicles  have magnetized  drain plug  so that  most  iron or steel  particles will  become attached  as  the  gear oil  circulates. Where vehicles operate under conditions promoting  dust, as do many  tractors, it is wise to  drain  gear  cases  frequently  so  that  abrasives  filtering  into  the  gear  oil  will be removed.