Open Gear Paste

Open gear paste is a heavy, highly adhesive lubricant for exposed gearing that cannot be enclosed in an oil bath: mill and kiln girth gears, dragline and shovel swing gears, crusher drives, winches and large slew rings.

Open gearing is a hard lubrication problem. Tooth contact is slow and enormously loaded, the gear set is open to dust, water and debris, and centrifugal force works constantly to throw the lubricant off. Open gear products answer this with very high base oil viscosity, strong tackiness agents and heavy extreme-pressure and solid additive packages that keep a load-carrying film in the tooth root under shock.

Application method matters as much as product choice. Spray systems need the correct nozzle and pressure, and intermittent application must be frequent enough that the film is never allowed to run thin between cycles.