The heavy equipment that work for you all day long are prone to frequent break downs if proper care is not taken. One should service the machine on regular basis thus increasing the life of the equipment. Maintaining the machine is of utter importance as it not only gives it some air to breathe but also ensures that it works uninterruptedly for a long time. Ignoring this can result in frequent problems like the machine may all of a sudden cease to work. This will lead to further complications like calling a mechanic to get it fixed and keeping your fingers crossed on the fact that it may take good number of days to get it back up and running. You may also be asked to replace a part with a new one. At times, those parts remain unavailable with the dealer and they have to order it directly from the company. This means that you are without your machine for some more days. The delay in getting the problem fixed is causing you to lose money which no business person would like to tolerate. The complications could be endless and one might not want to taste any of it. Hence, it is prudent to grease the heavy equipment at on daily regular intervals
Since we have spoken about the ill-effects of not servicing your machine regularly, we would now be diverting our attention on the right kind of grease one should be using on their machine.
Let us first understand what this grease is made up of. It is a mixture of oil, thickeners and addictives. So if you want to grease for the engine of the machine, you may go for synthetic oil. This oil is a bit expensive if compared with other varieties but has the ability to resist oxidation in tremendously hot environment and in extreme cold temperature, they can give better mobility in the automatic lubrication dispensing system of the engine. The synthetic oil is till now the best engine oil used by users.
Molybdenum disulfide:- Molybdenum disulfide is grease that has additives in it. It’s also known as “Molly”. EP greases has around 3 to 5% of Molly that is used for high pressure applications. It helps in filling the microscopic machining marks found on the bushing and the pin and reduces the friction of these two items in the machine particularly when it’s on with some heavy stressful stuff. Having said this, not all EP greases have Molly in it. Various types of EP greases can be used for lubricating the machine which is with or without Molybdenum disulfide.
Using Thickeners:- Applying grease without thickeners can soon leave the machine without any lubrication. Thickeners are used in grease which is applied in the joint or bearing of the equipment. Well this doesn’t implies that one should be using too much of thickener in the grease. In cold weather condition, the less the thickener is used in the grease, the better grease may pump. This is completely on the contrary in extreme hot temperature or for high temperature applications. The thickeners which are most commonly used are lithium. It also has a mixture of aluminum and calcium soaps but the proportion is far less.
This is how one can use different kind of grease for different applications. One may also take help of heavy equipment manuals to understand the kind of grease that would work better on the machine.