by Steve
(Palm Desert, Ca USA)
Hi, I received a printing machine that has an air filter/ lubricator on the side of the machine. The manual says to put oil in it, but it doesn’t say how or where or what kind of oil. How to set up and operate an air line lubricator?
All I can tell is there is a rotating dial on the top of the unit and a flat head screw.
I have no idea what either of these do, nor do I know how to put oil in the glass container, and how much to put in.
Thanks for any help.
Steve
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Steve, thanks writing in.
Make sure that the air supply to the machine is gone; turned off and vented to atmosphere.
I suspect that the flat head screw is either a fill port, or the flow adjustment for the lubricator. By carefully backing out that screw – if it is captured, that is it will not come out, then it is likely the flow adjustment. If it comes out and you can see clearly down into the bowl, then it it probably a fill access.
If so, you can use this to fill the bowl or, at this point you should be able to unscrew the bowl of the lubricator fairly easily by turning the bowl counter-clockwise.
Regardless of how you do so, fill the bowl with the appropriate lubricating oil (whatever air components you are lubricating will have lube specifications ) and screw the bowl back into the head of the lubricator or put the flat head screw back in.
The “bubble” on top of your lubricator is a sight glass enabling you to see, while compressed air is flowing through the lubricator, how much oil is being pulled into the air stream by the passing air. There should be a drop of oil coming out of the pitot tube every 2-3 minutes at most, again though, depending on the cycle speed of the components being lubricated.
Make sure that the air flow to the machine enters the Filter/Regulator first, then to the lubricator, and then to the machine components.
See the lubricator page on this site for additional info.
Auto refilling of lubricators?
by Billy
(Memphis, TN USA)
I want to automatically refill multiple pneumatic lubricators on an assembly. who has the equipment and how is it done?
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Billy, that’s a great question.
Over the years I’ve seen, and installed, equipment to automatically lubricate bearings and such, but have not run into equipment to auto fill multiple lubricators at the same time.
You would need some sort of injector fitting to get lubricating oil into a lubricator that is charged with compressed air against the air pressure.
Master Pneumatic has injectors but not in the volume that you would need. Yet, they are experts in the field, so why not contact them?
http://www.masterpneumatic.com/
You will want to know how many lubricators you want to fill, the capacity for each, and I would suspect some sort of idea how often.
I would appreciate some feedback for others if you are able to come up with solutions.
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