Permawick: Industry Standard FHP Motor Lubricants

Controlled Release of More Oil = Longer Motor Life

• Reduce Cost
• Increase Productivity with automatic injection
• Increase Quality by doubling bearing service life

What is Permawick?
Permawick is a wicking lubricant that can be machine injected into any size or shape of bearing reservoir. Permawick material permanently lubricates sleeve bearing systems. There is no need to re-oil Permawick. Permawick is a blend of engineered fibers and formulated oil that bonds to form a unique oil delivery system. Permawick is the industry standard for lubricating Fractional Horsepower Electric Motors.

"The Fiber-Oil bond in Permawick is the key to superior lubricant performance."

Fiber - Oil Bond
Permawick fibers absorb oil and trap oil, forming a physical/chemical bond between fiber and oil. The result is dramatic - Permawick is 85% oil by weight, 99% oil by volume! It is virtually like filling your bearing reservoir with liquid oil.

Why is Permawick better?
Older methods of lubrication used wool felts soaked in oil. Often the oil was simply a motor oil, not a formulated blend for FHP bearing requirements. Soaking felts is a messy and imprecise business resulting in uneven amounts of oil in assembled motors. These solid felt wicks monopolize the available space in the bearing reservoir leaving little room for oil. The felt simply acts as a mechanical obstacle to the natural flow of oil, trapping the oil between fibers. As temperatures go up, the oil flows out. Even worse, felts act like sponges, absorbing humidity.

The fiber-oil bond has another important feature, the ability to set and control the release rate of oil. By careful selection and processing of fiber, the Permawick material is blended to a uniform rate of release, depending on the means of feeding oil to the journal. NP fiber is used to lubricate sintered bearings, HH and FHH fiber lubricates felt contactors in sleeve bearings.

The Fiber-oil bond is set to be less than the force of attraction exerted by the bearing or felt contactor. The capillary pull of the sintered bearing will always overpower the Permawick bond in NP fiber and the same is true for the felt wicks pulling on HH and FHH fiber. The result is dramatic. A controlled release rate efficiently meters oil to the journal as it is needed.

Permawick Injection Equipment
The Fiber-oil bond performs an additional duty that helps reduce cost - it allows the material to be extruded through injection equipment. Using Injection Machines designed and built by the Permawick Company, the bearing assembly process can be semi or fully automated. Check out our Machine Product Line by clicking here.

Permawick injection equipment 
eliminates the messy handling of felt and oil and allows manufacturers to hit their SPC targets every time. The automation of the bearing assembly and lubrication process usually results in significant cost savings.