Every day, thousands of maintenance crews across North America top off or refill their plant machines with new lubricants. The intention is a pure one: to preserve, cool, and improve the performance of their metalworking tools. However, they unknowingly add chemically depleted, mixed, and moisture-contaminated oils to their systems.
The shelf life of a lubricant is a critical part of a well-designed lubrication program. Poor plant storage and handling of Castrol lubricants lead to serious repercussions, including damage to your machines. Maximizing your lubricant's storage life may require maintaining a clean, cool, and dry space. Here are three tips to help you properly store and handle your Castrol lubricants.
1. Know Your Cutting Oils and Lubricants' Recommended Shelf Life
Castrol oil products come with a supplier's recommended shelf life. Suppliers provide an estimate for a given product depending on several characteristics, including additives present, type of base oil, and thickeners. Lubricants with rust inhibitors can lose performance in less than six months in storage, while turbine fluids with light additives can last for up to three years. The shelf-life information for your consignment is available from your Castrol oil distributors.
2. Follow the First-In-First-Out Policy
Subjecting Castrol lubricants to long-term storage may raise noteworthy concerns. Oils and fluids can undergo oxidation, moisture absorption, or sediment build-up over time. To decrease the risk of having large quantities of oil losing their performance, establish a first-in-first-out protocol.
You can also analyze your historical consumption rate to help you design a weekly or monthly supply schedule with your oil distributors. This can ensure that you only have fresh cutting fluids and lubricants for use in your plants.
Moreover, you ought to have a proper documentation standard for your oils. Lubricant identification and labeling can help you determine which oils need to move out first. It may also prevent cross-contamination problems. Color coding your labels and adding a numerical code can simplify the process.
3. Store Your Castrol Lubricants Indoors
Maximizing the shelf life of your oils and fluids hangs largely on providing ideal storage conditions and procedures. An outdoor environment with varying temperature and humidity levels can result in "damaged" lubricants.
Temperature fluctuations can affect the air volume in your containers. Although your drum may be sealed and the oil is not leaking, the rigid contain may still in-hale air during low temperatures and push it out during high temperatures. Besides, extreme temperatures may result in the chemical degradation of the lubricants.
Additionally, petrol-based lubricants are hygroscopic, absorbing moisture from humid air. The moisture can degrade the additives present and accelerating oxidation when topped up to your machine.
You may need to create an environment-controlled storage unit to preserve your Castrol lubricants. As a rule of thumb, the rooms should be clean, dry, and have a steady, moderate temperature. You also need to have a proper storage racking system to ensure that you enforce the first-in-first-out policy.
You may need to properly store your oils and fluids after receiving your shipment from the Castrol oil distributor. Maximizing your lubricant's shelf-life can protect your equipment from the damaging effects of contamination and oxidation. For more information on how to best store your Castrol lubricants, reach out to Santie Oil Company.