41
PRESS LUBRICATION
Lubrication is something we generally review with customer personnel during start-
up. It is pretty straight forward:
CONE BUSHINGS: Once a shift
BEARINGS: Weekly
BUSHINGS: Weekly
SHAFT SEAL: Weekly
GEARBOX: Annually
AIR REGULATOR: Whenever empty (if a lubricator is being used)
MOTORS: Never
The most critical lubrication item has to do with the cone bushings. Before starting
up a new press, the cone should be run in and out a few times to spread the
grease around.
Lubrication of the cone bushings depends a lot on what is being pressed. With
orange peel, there is enough press liquor juice acting as a lubricant that the
bushings are lubricated only at the end of the processing season (to keep them
from locking up on dried-out peel juice). The other extreme is at a paper mill where
boiler fuel is made out of reject fiber. There is no free water left in the press cake,
so everything is very hot and dry. We automatically supply a 900 psi ATS autolube
on paper mill jobs. Another tough application is with vapor tight presses where
there is apt to be solvent getting into the cone bushings. The solvent can dissolve
and wash out the grease, so we like to see frequent lubrication of the cone
bushings. (Food grade grease is used in this application since food ingredients are
being produced by the press.)
If Vincent supplies an autolube for the cone bushings, it will be either battery
powered or require a hard wired power supply. This should be actuated when the
press is first placed in service. It should be set to give one small shot of grease
every couple hours. We provide autolubes with large grease reservoirs, so they
will go at least two weeks at the maximum greasing schedule. Once operations
are stabilized, it may be practical to reset the timer dip switches so that it gets one
shot every shift or once a day.
In any case, we tell the operators to run the cone open and closed once a shift
because this will spread the grease around. This is done with the press in
operation.
If Vincent does not provide an autolube for a critical operation, we generally tell the
operators to manually grease the cone bushings once a shift. We also tell them to
run the cone in and out when they do the greasing, in order to spread the grease.
To Next Page
Loading...
Need help?
General