John R. Battle Award for Lubrication Excellence

Introduction

The John R. Battle Award recognizes organizations that exhibit excellence in the application of machinery lubrication. The award motivates companies to improve machine reliability and maintenance quality through development, implementation and management of best-in-class machinery lubrication programs.

As with the Gill Award, ICML's focus is not just to identify award recipients, but also to encourage the pursuit of excellence and create a global venue for showcasing best practices among successful organizations. The Battle Award helps raise the bar for skills-based certification by recognizing role models for benchmarking and the setting of performance standards within the lubrication and reliability communities.

To become a John R. Battle Award recipient, the ideal organization must demonstrate a solid lubrication program, backed up by multidisciplinary efforts and approaches, with sustainable results and continued improvements. Among other factors, the John R. Battle Award criteria include:

• Commitment to Education and Skills Competence
• Maintenance Culture and Management Support
• Lubricant Selection, Lubricant Performance Standards and Lubricant Consolidation
• Preventive, Predictive and Proactive Program Design and Effectiveness
• Lubrication Program Metrics and Overall Performance Tracking
• Lubricant Storage, Handling, Safety and Conservation
• Lubrication PM Optimization, Work Plan Management, Scheduling, Documentation
• Oil Analysis Program Design, Test Slates, Lab Selection and Setting of Alarms
• Oil Analysis Sampling Frequency, Sampling Hardware and Procedures
• Contamination Exclusion and Removal
• Oil and Grease Application Methods and Hardware Deployed
• Continuous Improvement

Inaugural Award Presented in 2005

ICML presented the inaugural 2004 Battle Award in the spring of 2005 to Clopay Plastics (Augusta, KY) during the Lubrication Excellence Conference and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas.

Do you think your organization meets the qualifications for such a prestigous award? Click above to start your application.

Career and Contributions

John Rome Battle was born March 30, 1889 in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1910 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He later received a Master of Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1917 for a thesis on oil engineering.

Mr. Battle began his career in 1910 as a cadet engineer for United Gas Improvement Co. in Philadelphia. He worked as a lubrication engineer for Atlantic Refining Co. and later took a position with Swan and Finch Co.

In 1916 while still with Atlantic, he authored his first book, 'Lubricating Engineer's Handbook.' In 1920, only three years after receiving his master's degree, he started his own consulting business, J.R. Battle and Co., specializing in industrial application, use and research of petroleum and other oil products.

During the same year he published a second book 'Handbook of Industrial Oil Engineering.' With more than 1,100 pages, this was a practical handbook, encyclopedic in nature, with the original 'Lubricating Engineer's Handbook' content incorporated in it.

With plain text explanations and several charts, line drawings, curves and useful tables, the book was adopted by several oil companies at the time and had two subsequent editions in 1933 and 1936. Mr. Battle wrote another book, 'Handbook of Lubrication, Liquid fuels and Industrial Oil Engineering' in 1938, as well as several articles throughout his career. He also served as editor of the Industrial Oil Engineering Department of The National Petroleum News and was a member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Petroleum Institute (API).

Innovations and Business Ventures

Mr. Battle invented various types of lubrication and oil handling and dispensing equipment while concurrently presiding over his other company, Gun-fil Corporation. The Gun-fil® lubricator was patented by Mr. Battle in 1924. It is a spring-loaded automatic lubricator. The lubricator is designed to deliver a constant amount of lubrication. His four design configurations (for different lubricating frequencies) are highlighted in his 'Handbook of Industrial Oil Engineering' published in 1926. In 1946 he sold the Gun-fil product line to Gray Company and retired. The company, now Graco, began selling the Gun-fil lubricators and continued to manufacture and sell them until the mid-1960s, when it sold the rights to Lube Devices, Inc. (LDI Industries, Inc.), the company that still sells these lubricators as recently as 2025.

Honorary Recognition

Mr. Battle died on March 18, 1975 in Philadelphia, PA, just shy of his 86th birthday.

ICML chose to honor Mr. Battle as the namesake for this award because his work at such an early stage in the history of modern machinery lubrication represents the focused mission of the Council - that of bridging the gap between academic and practical application.