When, where, how much, and with what — these are the fundamental questions to answer in equipment lubrication. The answers are normally provided by the makers of process and manufacturing equipment.
However, maintenance personnel must sometimes address the “with what” question when finding substitutes for previously used lubricants. This exclusive guide, published at 3-yr intervals, allows quick identification of major lubricant sources and cross referencing of products.
The ideal lubricant lasts forever and retains all its properties. In reality, leaks, evaporation, heat, oxidation, and contamination combine to limit service life. Properly answering the “when” question requires monitoring by means of oil analysis, which is a fundamental component of modern lubrication and preventive/predictive maintenance programs.
Regular laboratory analysis indicates the health of both lubricant and machine. Viscosity, contamination, oxidation, acidity, and metals content are examples of parameters analyzed.
The “where” and “how much” concerns are good candidates for the visual approach to total productive maintenance. For example, lube fittings, filler caps, oil cans, and grease guns can be color-coded for type of lubricant and point of application. Captive plastic dirt caps for zerk fittings are available in a variety of colors. The color-coding is often carried over to lube diagrams, which are laminated and attached to equipment or carried on lube routes.
Using the guide
This exclusive guide presents offerings from the 106 companies who responded to our request for information. Product names listed in each category were provided by the manufacturers.
Presenting the data does not reflect the quality of the lubricant, imply the performance expected under particular operating conditions, or serve as an endorsement. Lubricant and equipment manufacturers should be consulted for specific applications or questions.
Viscosity key factor
Viscosity is the property most widely accepted for identifying lubricants within a category. This characteristic serves as the basis for PLANT ENGINEERING magazine’s product listings. Viscosity can be specified in several ways. The Viscosity/grade comparison chart compares commonly used systems. In this guide, lubricants within each category are arranged according to ISO viscosity grade, with the corresponding Saybolt viscosity shown for reference.
Note that this guide covers only mineral oil-based products. A similar triennial guide is published for synthetic lubricants (PE, July 2000, p 46, File 8010).
The Guide
The guide is available in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf). If necessary, download and install a free copy of the Acrobat Reader software.
File size of the lubricants guide is only 111 KB . Once you have the Reader software installed, click on the “guide” link above. It may take a minute or two to save to disk or open within your browser, depending on your internet connection and browser configuration.
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Viscosity /grade comparison chart

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