For quite some time now, machines have been developed to help humans perform some work and even makes it easy to do so compared to handling the tasks on your own. Therefore, they have to be taken care of or properly maintained.
If you own a machine then you must have noticed that part of your maintenance expenses includes purchasing lubricants, right? This is true since half of what you spend on maintenance usually go to the activities revolving around lubrication.
Therefore, it is always recommended to have a great lubrication program if you don’t want to incur extra costs. This therefore mean that you will need to take into consideration the basics of lubricating your machine if you want to get the most out of it. You can also other techniques like the minimum quantity lubrication to help you sustain your asset. With that being said, let us look at how you can come up with a good lubrication program.
- The right part
Well, as you are evaluating your lubrication program, the very first stem you need to take into account includes the identification of all the parts that will require lubrication in your asset.
Of course, almost all the machines usually come with some sort of a lubrication chart from the manufacturers to point out all the parts that should be lubricated. With this in your possession, it will help you not to miss any lubrication point when doing your maintenance.
This will also help you to identify different specifications of the parts and also the right lubricant to use.
- Lubricant to use
This is another important point to note when it comes to the basics of lubrication. After you’ve identified all the points to be lubricated, you will be needed to verify the type of lubricant to be used. Most parts of a machine are usually lubricated using grease, this is why a lot of companies often use an all-purpose grease for lubricating their machines.
In as much as this always work, it is not recommended as it can result to grease wastage and sometimes even damage the equipment. For you to optimize the performance of your asset, you will need to use a specialized grease.
This can mostly come in handy when you have machines that are always exposed to high pressure and temperatures as they always need special types of grease to meet their operational requirements. This can help in reducing the grease consumption and can also prolong the time before you can lubricate again.
Also, make sure you don’t mix the lubricants you are using as this might lead to a chemical reaction that can result into your equipment being damaged. Click here to see more on the types of lubricants and their function.
- Timing
Time is always a factor to almost everything and therefore making it important to always do things at the right time. When it comes to lubrication, it is recommended that you do the lubrication more frequently while using the lubricant in small quantities compared to doing it once in a while and using large quantities. This can improve the machine’s performance better. You can however refer to the lubrication chart of the equipment and find out what are the greasing intervals of the asset.
- The Quantity
As said before, if you want to have a good lubricating program, then you must know some lubrication basics and one of them includes knowing the right lubricant quantity to use. The quantity of the lubricant applied to different parts of the machine usually plays a huge role.
Too much lubrication or under-lubrication can often have a negative impact on the machine and therefore needs to be avoided. Well, if you don’t know yet, over-lubrication can lead to excessive pressure on the bearings of the machine which can lead to a malfunction.
On the other hand, under-lubrication can also cause the machine to break down due to the wearing out of the non-lubricated points. With a regular lubrication using the right quantity, you will be able to maintain a good lubrication level on your machine and can also save you from any extra spending.
- Method used
Finally, after confirming that everything else is in place, you will need to determine which one is the right method to use when doing the lubrication.
You should choose the method depending on the environment effects and the health and safety of what you are using.
Make sure you use a method that won’t see you waste a lot of your lubricant too. See this link for different methods you can use https://www.techtransfer.com/blog/oil-and-grease-application-methods/