Lubrication Equipment

About Lubrication Equipment and Lubrication Equipment Manufacturers Including: Grease Pump, Lubricating Systems, Lubricators, Oil Dispenser & Oilers.

Lubrication equipment and lubrication systems are essential components of manufacturing and industrial machinery and technology. Lubrication equipment is used to provide and apply controlled or metered amounts of lubricant to a part or piece of equipment. Lubrication equipment manufacturers are often capable of creating, and may specialize in, custom units of lubrication technology. Lubrication equipment is useful in many industries, including packaging, printing, water and sewage pumping, textiles, food processing, chemical processing, mining, brewing and bottling, pellet mills and machinery production.
 
Some of machinery for which lubrication systems are used includes dies, chains, cables, rails, gears, pumps and any other moving and rotating parts commonly found on conveyer or assembly machinery. To ensure reliable and efficient operation of such equipment, these moving parts often need a constant supply of lubricating fluids, and the lubrication equipment is able to provide this at the proper temperature, viscosity, flow rate and pressure. Other more specific examples of machinery that use lubricants include rock crushers, gearboxes, large blowers and fans, turbines and industrial centrifuges.
 
The most important components of lubrication equipment are the reservoir, pump and filter. The reservoir is the area in which the lubricant is stored after coming back from the area it lubricates. The pump is used to move the lubricant through the system and into areas that need to be lubricated. The filter is used to ensure that the lubricant stays clean and free from contaminants so that the system is not disrupted. These lubricating systems often have instrumentation to provide readings of the flow rate, temperature and level of the lubricant. Lubrication equipment manufacturers can provide more elaborate systems that contain alarm points to warn of improper balances.
 
Lubrication equipment manufacturers can also offer both manual and automatic products. Often automatic technology is part of permanent or centralized lubrication equipment. This lubrication equipment is usually a part of the machines they lubricate but require separate maintenance for themselves. Automatic systems are especially useful because they reduce downtime and labor cost since they do not require operators. Also, there is less chance of failure due to human error because these machines do exactly what they are programmed to do. Manual lubrication equipment is fully human-operated, as in spot lubrication guns, or only partially, as in the case of a chain lubricator, which requires the mounting of the machine to the chain and the programming of flow rate and length of chain into the device, which is then able to run automatically. For manual lubricators, there is often a greater chance of missing an area or supplying too much lubrication to another.

Lubrication Equipment and Lubrication Equipment Manufacturers Images Provided by Oil-Rite® Corporation

Types of Lubrication Equipment

• Air lubricators provide proper lubrication and filtration to compressed air lines, which are used to power tools and other such machinery. These lubricators are often built into the line itself, providing constant lubrication.
  
• Automatic lubricators are systems that provide continuous or periodic anti-friction and fluid movement to machines and systems, which require lubricant to function properly.
  
• Beam lubricators work very much like chain lubricators but can be housed permanently onto the machine that needs lube for frequent use. They are usually set off on their own length of track or beam, which is not a part of the routine function of the system.
  
• Centralized lubrication systems consist of a conventional lever gun that supplies lubricant to a single grease fitting, which then feeds a number of grease distribution lines to lube points that are found throughout the machinery or system in need of lubricant.
  
• Circulating header systems have isolated lube zones in which the lube pump constantly runs and circulates oil through the header and back to the tank when in an idle period.
  
• Chain lubricators are automatic units that travel the length of a chain or rail and disperse proper amounts of lubricant across the length of the system.
  
• Dual-line systems have two main lines connected to a pump that use pressure to cause the pistons to dispense lubricant onto a designated area.
  
• Grease or oil lubricators refer to a lubrication technology that provides petrol-based lubrication to machines and parts, which need them to function.
  
• Grease pump lubricate machinery with grease.
  
• Intermittent systems are designed to supply lubricant periodically, based on a timer.
  
• Lubricating systems apply lubricant to machinery to prevent wear from friction.
  
• Lubricators apply lubricant to moving mechanical parts.
  
• Microfog or oil mist lubrication systems deliver a mixture of atomized, micron oil particles and air to the area in need of lubricant. Sometimes, these systems are used for the cooling of bearings, as well as for fluid movement and cleaning.
  
• Oil dispenser is a container designed to hold and dispense oil for lubricating applications.
  
• Oilers are devices that apply lubricating oil to areas of friction in machinery.
  
• Orifice systems are single line systems in which the resistance to flow created by different size orifices proportions the flow to the lube points. These systems are not positive displacement and are limited to the use of oil as a lubricant.

Lubrication Equipment Terms

Anhydrous – Devoid of water.

Ash – The amount of inorganic material in a lubricant, expressed as a percentage by weight.

Compounded Oil – Mineral oil to which has been added vegetable or animal oil or chemical lubricating oil additives to enhance certain physical or chemical properties of the finished blend.

Controller – Electrical device that includes a timer and a monitor.

Degradation – The failure of a machine or lubricant over time.

Divider Valve – A valve that measures positive displacement lubricant by dividing and proportioning input flow.

Dry Lubrication – A condition in which there is no lubrication between two moving parts.

Film Strength – Also referred to as "lubricity," it is an oil or grease’s ability to lubricate.

Friction – The resistance to motion between two surfaces in contact. 

Injector – A positive displacement (oil or grease) lubricant measuring valve that dispenses lubricant when main line pressure rises and resets/primes when its compressed return spring forces the measuring piston back to its rest position at the point at which the main line pressure is vented.

Lube Cycle – The time period from one lubrication event to the start of the next.

Lube Fault – Incomplete or elongated lube cycle caused by a failure of the cycle switch or pressure switch.

Monitor – A device that checks the operation of a lubrication system against a designated time frame.

NLGI Number – A numerical scale for the classification of the consistency range of lubricating greases based on the ASTM penetration number. NLGI grades are in order of increasing consistency (hardness).

Oxidation – The process of combining a substance with oxygen; all petroleum products are subject to oxidation of some degree. The reaction increases with rise in temperature. 

Oxidation Stability – A lubricant’s ability to resist reaction with oxygen.

Squeeze-Film Lubrication – The state of lubrication in which surfaces thickly coated or flooded with lubricant move toward each other at sufficient speeds to develop fluid pressure sufficient to support a load of short duration. 

Stroke Counter – The device that schedules the frequency of lubrication in a system.

Tribology – The science of the mechanisms of friction, lubrication and wear of interacting surfaces that are in relative motion.

Viscosity – The property of a fluid, semi-fluid or semi-solid substance that causes it to resist flow. Viscosity is defined as the shear stress on a fluid element divided by the rate of shear.