Lubrication Systems

The majority of bearing failures in wood pelleting result from improper lubrication. Automated lubrication systems are paramount and often the standard for pellet mill lubrication. The advantages are obvious: Controlled lubricant distribution ensures no lubrication point is missed, resulting in reduced contamination and lower risks of grease mixing and breakdown, ultimately leading to lower maintenance costs. However, in most pellet plants, too much grease is applied at too long intervals. 

At one of our French wood pellet customers, we replaced the grease distributor of the press N°5. The existing divider did not allow to reduce grease volumes. The divider was equipped with three PMF 50 segments for total displacement of 3 x (0.5×2) = 3 cc. Set for four Pulses every three minutes (20 cycles/hour).

This should result in 4 x 3cc x 20 = 240 cc/hr per press or 80cc/roller/hr. In reality, the consumption was higher due to leakages.

6.4 x 3 x 20 = 384 cc/hr per press or 128 cc/roller/hr

We replaced the divider with a MSP 3 Trabon Graco divider equipped with three segments 05S (coupled in single output) or 2 x 0.08 cc = 0.16cc per segment, resulting in a total displacement 3 x (0.08 x 2) = 0.48 cc.

The final grease consumption with Bathan grease is 6 g/hr per press.