Open flames, steam everywhere, a steel hardening shop is not for the faint-hearted. Working close to open fires is inevitable due to the hardening processes, but also some of the machine components are hard to access. There are hundreds of lubrication points in hardening shops that must be supplied with lubricants to ensure reliable operation: a task that cannot be performed economically without using automatic lubricating systems that also help reduce the risk of accidents.
Nearly 100% lower risk
Take a power plant for example: a power unit needs to be lubricated once a week with two strokes from a grease gun. “Typically, that’s 1.5 cubic centimetres of grease per stroke, amounting to three cubic centimetres of grease per week,” explains Tony May, Technical Sales Consultant – Smart Lubrication at Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions. “With a fully automatic lubrication system that usually has a grease reservoir of 125 cubic centimetres, the machine will continuously be supplied with grease.”
In Schaeffler’s hardening shop in Schweinfurt, two systems were recently equipped with 70 OPTIME C1s. These smart lubricators consist of a grease cartridge, a gateway and a digital service, visualising the data in a mobile app or on a web-based dashboard and indicating all relevant operating parameters (fill level, battery, temperature, etc.) and problems (empty status, counter-pressure, etc.). The relevant data from OPTIME C1 is transmitted directly to the Schaeffler cloud, so that the hardening shop’s maintenance team can always access the data using a smartphone or browser. There’s no need for inspections, which not only saves time but also reduces the risk of accidents.
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