Benefits of automatic lubrication

Every year millions of dollars is spent on

buying and upgrading plant machinery
designed to produce things faster and
better. However, machines continue
to break down and unexpected plant
failure results in production stoppages
that can create very substantial
financial losses.
Bearing failure is a major contributor,
and more than half of rolling bearing
failure is attributed to lubrication
issues including underlubrication,
overlubrication, aged and contaminated
lubricant.
For optimal bearing performance and
longevity the reliable supply of clean
lubricant is essential. Manual greasing
programmes often fail for various
reasons including resource issues,
accessibility issues, etc. Bearings can
suffer from a detrimental cycle from
starvation to overlubrication with both
equally damaging and resulting in
premature failure.
Automatic lubricators remove these
issues by delivering small amounts of
fresh lubricant on a frequent basis. In
addition to maximising reliability, auto
lubricators can he remotely mounted to
feed lubricant to bearings in dangerous
locations and hidden behind guarding.
For these reasons automatic single and
multi point lubricators are increasingly
becoming an essential component for
both preventative and condition based
maintenance programmes.
Slow rotating equipment such as
conveyor rollers and head drums in
dusty environments require a constant
feed of grease to both lubricate the
bearings and purge the sealing systems
whereas high speed fans require a
constant feed of fresh lubricant to the
bearing with excess being drained away
to avoid heat build up. Almost every
application for both rolling and plain
bearings benefit from the use of auto
lubrication and have more chance of
reaching and exceeding design life.
More than 40 years ago the Perma
company of Germany invented the first
single point auto lubricators using a
controlled gas generation process to
expel grease from a canister at rates
ranging from three to 12 months.
Over the years lubricators using
the gas generation process have
progressively improved with the latest
units using microprocessor control
technology to accurately control the
lubricant flow rates.
Thousands of these simple single
use lubricators are providing reliable
lubrication to applications all over New
Zealand. From the wind turbines in the
Antarctic operating at down to -400C to
effluent pumps on farms in the far north.
More sophisticated lubricators using
battery or mains powered reciprocating
positive displacement piston pumps
provide lubricant feed pressures up to
850psi enabling remote mounting up to
six meters. The high-pressure capability
also enables economical multi point
lubrication by using divider blocks that
dispense grease equally up to eight points.
The latest products from Pulsarlube
USA use microprocessor control
and an LCD display screen for easy
programming dispensing rates from
half and month to 24 months. The
LCD displays important information
including days remaining on the cycle,
battery condition, blockages, etc.
This sophistication and performance
is offered at prices levels never seen
before which is contributing to the
wider spread application on both new
and existing machinery.
G o t o demm.co .nz/enquiry quo t e:
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