switch lubricant?

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Joseph Alexander

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can anyone advise me on the type of lubricant to be used on switch gear, I am bidding a job to clean and lube main disconnects and switch gear in a commercial environment.
Thanx for any help
 
zog

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
Joseph Alexander said:
can anyone advise me on the type of lubricant to be used on switch gear, I am bidding a job to clean and lube main disconnects and switch gear in a commercial environment.
Thanx for any help
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There are about 100 different possibilities, we stock most of them. It depends on the equipment, each is different and specific to that type of gear. Often 2 or 3 different lubes are used in one breaker. You cannot lubricate switchgear very easily in the field, complete disassembly is required per the OEM maintenenace books.

If you can give me details I will get you the correct lubricants to use , but if you have to ask about this you likely should not be bidding it.
 
brian john

brian john

Senior Member
Location
Leesburg, VA
I am not trying to be sarcastic, snippety or snooty BUT, in my opinion and experience if you have to ask this type of question most likely you may be in over your head. Companies that perform maintenance and testing on electrical distribution equipment, have techs that know this information, have the proper material on hand and have the test equipment and knowledge to perform this work.

Most contractor that perform maintenance with out the skills necessary, use the wrong chemicals, over grease or fail to grease the proper components. Much less all the other knowledge required to adjust components, and test the equipment.
 
zog

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
brian john said:
I am not trying to be sarcastic, snippety or snooty BUT, in my opinion and experience if you have to ask this type of question most likely you may be in over your head. Companies that perform maintenance and testing on electrical distribution equipment, have techs that know this information, have the proper material on hand and have the test equipment and knowledge to perform this work.

Most contractor that perform maintenance with out the skills necessary, use the wrong chemicals, over grease or fail to grease the proper components. Much less all the other knowledge required to adjust components, and test the equipment.
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Agreed.

I also see a lot of testing companies using spray lubes in the field, that is worse than doing nothing at all. "Technition in a can" is good for a quick fix for a jammed mechanisim but displaces all the real grease and can lead to major issues when the spray lubes evaporate in a few weeks. Perhaps the most common cause of failures of breakers we get in our shop.
 
brian john

brian john

Senior Member
Location
Leesburg, VA
I have seen EC's use Windex on insulators, CRC Lectra Clean on rubber seals, plastic components and some that thought Lectra Clean was a lubricant. Have also had to do major work on bolted pressure switches after the contractor removed all grease and left it that way another used the wrong grease resulting in the switch seizing after the lubricant dried out. Wire brushes, sand paper and files on contacts but the prize was a 50kv Hipot on 600 VAC busway
 
zog

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
brian john said:
I have seen EC's use Windex on insulators, CRC Lectra Clean on rubber seals, plastic components and some that thought Lectra Clean was a lubricant. Have also had to do major work on bolted pressure switches after the contractor removed all grease and left it that way another used the wrong grease resulting in the switch seizing after the lubricant dried out. Wire brushes, sand paper and files on contacts but the prize was a 50kv Hipot on 600 VAC busway
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Yep, those are all common things to see, I have a nice photo collection of that sort of stuff. My favorive one is the grease on the contacts (Including arcing) of a air breaker, 1st fault burnt the whole sub to the ground. Wrong grease can be worse than no grease, or mixing greases. We add a label to each breaker we ship that states the lubricants used, to help prevent stuff like that happening.
 
D

djohns6

Senior Member
Location
Louisiana
Automotive wheel bearing grease on the jaws of a high voltage ( 69kv and above ) air break switch . Been there , seen that .
 
B

big john

Senior Member
Location
Portland, ME
Don't know if it's true or not, we've been told by the guys who rebuild our LV breakers to never use any silicone or teflon based lubes, even if the manufacturers specs call for it.

Apparently those lubes don't play well with others, and if someone were to one day apply a different type of lube on top of those bases, the resulting mess is usually the exact opposite of lubricant.

-John
 
zog

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
big john said:
Don't know if it's true or not, we've been told by the guys who rebuild our LV breakers to never use any silicone or teflon based lubes, even if the manufacturers specs call for it.

Apparently those lubes don't play well with others, and if someone were to one day apply a different type of lube on top of those bases, the resulting mess is usually the exact opposite of lubricant.

-John
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There are many pitfalls to mixing any grease with another, they can chemically react with each other in some very nasty ways, we have a reaction chart that shows all of the results of mixing different lubricants. We always commuicate the lubricant used for every breaker in our shop with the customer. Some facilities choose to use the same greases on every breaker in tier facility, regardless of the OEM recommendation, so they never mix them.
 
D

djohns6

Senior Member
Location
Louisiana
zog said:
There are many pitfalls to mixing any grease with another, they can chemically react with each other in some very nasty ways, we have a reaction chart that shows all of the results of mixing different lubricants.
Click to expand...

Where would one obtain a chart like that ?
 
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