A synthetic bearing and gear grease works well in water-rich environments, according to the developer, Dow Corning Corp., Midland, Mich. Molykote G-1502FM effectively lubricates equipment operating in wet conditions, the company says.

Especially formulated to stay in place even with high-pressure equipment wash-down, the grease outperformed other greases in ASTM D tests for water spray-off, wear and corrosion, according to Dow, which notes that the grease also demonstrated an ability to minimize lubrication loss and wear scar at typical speeds, and in four-ball wear-testing at slower (100 rpm) speeds. Corrosion tests showed an ability to reduce rust by as much as 95 percent.

Existing users of its products prompted Dow to develop the product when “they identified performance shortcomings of traditional greases offered for water-rich environments,” says Phil Grellier, Dow’s global market manager for Industrial Assembly and Maintenance Solutions. Thanks to insights from customers, Grellier says the company “saw gaps in water-resistant greases for such industries as food and beverage machinery, pulp and paper processing equipment, water management, and others,” and then created a product to address the issue.

In the field, Grellier says a U.S. food-production facility compared how the water-resistant grease performed against lubricating greases that the facility had been using in its water-rich environment. The results showed that conveyor-lubrication material and labor costs dropped by more than 80 percent, and the increased reliability helped the user reduce re-lubrication work orders by 75 percent.

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