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Lubrication Application
Grease Guns
Grease guns are used for manual greasing. The figure shown here illustrates a “Lever Grease Gun”. This type of gun can supply a considerable volume of grease. These innocent looking devices can easily generate a pressure of 1000 psig or higher.
High pressure is necessary to push the grease through the system.
Bearings that use grease come in two designs as far as acceptance of grease is concerned. In one design the system is provided with an inlet point as well as a discharge point. In such cases, when you pump in new grease, the older grease is pushed out through the exit point. This design allows the contaminated grease to be replaced by fresh grease.
On the other hand, the second design is far more restrictive and does not have an exit point. As a matter of fact, in such designs, the exit side is sealed to hold the lubricant in place. But it creates a problem. If you over-grease a system such as this, it will blow out the seal on the other side. As a result, when the bearing gets hot, all of the lubricant will flow out. A large number of electric motors fail due to damage caused by over-greasing.