Crushing & Screening Tip #17 - Greasing

Do you suffer from regular failed bearings ?

Are you possibly under greasing or over greasing ?

Under greasing a bearing will result in premature failure.

Do you know your grease gun ? They are not all the same.

Over greasing a bearing can result in a premature failure if the dust seals are blown out and allow ingress of dust / dirt.

How many grams of grease per pump does your gun provide?

There is a big variety in the amount of grease delivered by pistol grip, lever, battery powered and air powered grease guns and differences between brands.

If your conveyor requires 2 grams of grease per day per bearing and your

• pistol grip might only deliver 0.7 grams - 2 pumps isn't enough

• lever gun delivers 1.2 grams - 2 pumps could be too much

• battery gun delivers 80 grams per minute / 1.33 grams per second - 3 seconds could deliver far too much grease

• air powered gun delivers 900 grams per minute / 15 grams per second - 1 second could deliver far too much grease

To correctly grease your machines you need to have a grease schedule with grams per bearing per hour / day / week.

Make sure you are using the correct grease for the application and never mix greases of different bases - they are not compatible and will result in failure.