What's new
What's new

Kluber Super TEL discontinued?

Neil Scully

Plastic
Joined
Aug 22, 2021
I had placed an order for a 50g tube of Kluber Super TEL with one ogf the UK distributors but they came back with the following response after waiting 6 weeks.

"We have just chased up on this order and been informed that Isoflex Super TEL has been discontinued.

Please see below from Kluber

Regarding the terminated ISOFLEX SUPER TEL.

If it's used in CNC machine spindle bearings then ISOFLEX NBU 15 would be a good alternative.

If it's used for any other application then I will revisit the application."

I asked them to go back to Kluber with the specifics of the Deckel spindle to check for the suitability of the NBU 15 but as of now I have not had a response.

Does anyone have any experience of using NBU 15 instead of Super TEL. I know all past discussions pretty much said to stick with TEL as it was a known quantity.

Neil
 
I have just had the following back from Kluber via the Agent

Hello Neil,

Please see below from Kluber engineer.

Yes the product was cancelled some years ago, with no direct replacement



It was an ester/mineral grease, li-k, NLGI 1 with a viscosity of 22 cSt at 40C; NDM value was 1300K, and temperature range was -55 to +60 C



Isoflex NBU 15 is our standard recommendation for spindle bearings, it has a low viscosity but higher consistency (2) than the Super TEL and it is a Ba-k grease (this provides a bit less oil release than Li-k; this means is more suitable for vertical application the previous grease and for outer ring rotations (not sure what they mean by spindle outer and spindle shaft); it also goes to only -40 C



Also, NBU 15 is not really compatible with the previous one, so they would need to clean out the bearing first.
 
I contacted Franz Singer as I wanted some other parts as well. He has actually quoted Kluber LDS 18 on his quote. Looking at the spec it is also listed for machine tool spindles.
 
That would probably sound right but not what Andreas from Singer has quoted in his email. Does anyone know Franz well enough to ask him directly?
 
Hi Neil,

I just got off the phone with Franz. When I did my horizontal spindle, I already had a cartridge of NBU-15 at home. Franz told me that it as OK to use that and to fill the roller bearings (horizontal spindle) completely and the vertical bearings 40%. BUT what I just found out was that he prefers to use LDS-18 on the spindles that are slower than 3000 rpm. NBU-15 is also OK but not his first choice. Because the LDS-18 is lower viscosity, Franz says that you can fill the entire bearing and it won't get too warm.

Cheers,
Bruce
 
Hi Neil,

I just got off the phone with Franz. When I did my horizontal spindle, I already had a cartridge of NBU-15 at home. Franz told me that it as OK to use that and to fill the roller bearings (horizontal spindle) completely and the vertical bearings 40%. BUT what I just found out was that he prefers to use LDS-18 on the spindles that are slower than 3000 rpm. NBU-15 is also OK but not his first choice. Because the LDS-18 is lower viscosity, Franz says that you can fill the entire bearing and it won't get too warm.

Cheers,
Bruce


Here experience trumps general knowledge...
Cheers Ross
 
Here experience trumps general knowledge.

I was so surprised by what Franz told me that after I got off the phone I had a look at one of the Kluber manuals. They have you calculate n x d, where n is the rpms and d is the diameter of the outer race in mm. So for my FP2 that would be I think 2000 x 70 = 140,000. Then look at the Kluber graph of "how much fill percentage". For this grease, when n x d is less than 200,000, they recommend a complete fill. Not what I expected, but maybe it makes sense.

Neil, if you follow this advice, be sure to run in the spindle at low speeds first to get the grease distributed, and keep an eye on the temperature as you speed it up.
 








 
Back
Top