Gearbox Corrosion Mitigation During Storage and Intermittent Operation

Abstract Gearboxes are one of the most critical pieces of equipment in a plant. Downtime because of gearbox failure can significantly impact manufacture and be very costly. An additional inventory of spare gearboxes is needed to minimize the effect of the loss. All gearboxes operating and during storage are susceptible to corrosion due to moisture condensation on the metal surfaces. The work describes oil additives that protect gearboxes during operation, layup, and warehouse storage. As was proved, the corrosion can be mitigated by adding a Vapor Corrosion Inhibitor (VCI) to the system. The testing methodology to verify the effectiveness of the oil additives, as well as compatibility with the base oil, was presented. Based on the present work, a specification for gearbox preservation during storage was developed.