The Need For Proper Lubrication

A study conducted by SKF, a leading bearing manufacturer, discovered that improper lubrication accounted for 54% of bearing failures.

The study concluded that 34.4% of failures are the result of inadequate lubrication. Often the time demands on a piece of equipment leave little time to provide routine maintenance. Tight construction schedules and the need to maximize equipment use, often lead to poor maintenance practices. Proper lubrication takes time and a committed employee to perform a proper lubrication job. Often an operator is not trained or even willing to take the time to properly lubricate the machinery. Harsh environments often make even finding all of the lube points a large task. In bad weather, with snow or water dripping off the machine many grease points may be missed.

A good lube job can often take some time to perform, but consistent, proper maintenance pays huge dividends down the road by avoiding costly down time and eliminating the costs associated with repairs.

Surprisingly, the SKF study found that almost one-fifth of all failures resulted from contamination. Undoubtedly, with the harsh environments that much of our equipment must operate in, a portion of this contamination may be attributed to seal failure.

Over greasing has been shown to play an adverse role in seal failure. Improper procedures during the lubrication process are also a reason for contamination. Extra care must be taken to prevent contaminates from entering the bearing during the lubrication process. With the majority of grease fittings, contaminates may be forced into the bearings if not properly cleaned prior to servicing.

Filtakleen believes that a reliable automatic lubrication system will greatly reduce these problems. A properly installed automatic lubrication pump with a timer that can be adjusted to fire at different times will provide continual lubrication to bearings, bushings and pins. This will greatly extend the life of these components, and also eliminates the possibility of seal damage due to over-greasing.

Automatic lubrication pumps greatly reduce the possibility of introducing contaminated grease into the system by incorporating a quick fill system. With these systems, a grease gun is attached directly to the pump reservoir via a quick-coupler. Lines are attached to the individual grease points after removal of the zerk fittings, and these lines run to the lube pump. With this completely sealed system, dirt contamination is virtually eliminated.

The market of automatic lube systems is growing in the United States. At present there is only about 8-10% of all equipment with a lube system. Europe, on the other hand has 80-90% of the equipment with an automatic lube system.

A large truck fleet in the western United States, found that the maintenance costs went down dramatically with the use of an auto-lube system. This company also discovered that instead of having 104 trucks to keep a fleet of 100 on the road at all times, they went to 101 trucks by using the auto-lube system. Additional savings were also realized by extending their lease payment by an extra year without increasing maintenance cost. Overall, auto-lube systems for stationary equipment or over the road trucks, are becoming a necessity to help save the bottom line.

Points that should be looked at when investing in automatic lube systems:

	Steel line versus plastic line
	Number of points that a pump can grease
	Anodized body for extended life and easy cleaning
	Single stroke pump
	Serviceable grease meters
	Meters that grease at the same time
	Kwik check enabled - to check an entire truck in 10 minutes to make sure the system is working.