Choose wisely
When you spend your hard-earned money on a pricey machine, the last thing you want to do is to hinder its performance, increase downtime or worse, cause premature damage due to an un-educated decision on the maintenance side of things!
At OxRock we pride ourselves on quality customer service and so It’s our job to make sure we get you the most suitable high-quality grease for your machine, we hope this guide on choosing a grease type can help.
It is important for the user to understand that different grease types are specifically suited to certain types of applications on specific machinery & vehicles – there is not a one type fits all option across your fleet. Refer to your machine/vehicle operators/maintenance manual.
Back to basics
Grease lubricants are made up of 3 things: 70-95% base oil, 3-30% thickener and 0-10% additives. These components are what makes up the grease that you buy in the stores for your machines. It is usually the differences in base oil and additives that change the uses and applications of a grease. The KAJO greases we currently offer are all National Lubricating Grease Institute (NGLI) 2 consistency, it’s a popular grade of grease and can suit a wide range of applications, working effectively with.
Even though all the greases are NGLI they all have different base oils & additives, therefore are all used for different applications. This guide will help you differentiate between our greases.
When it comes to the base oil, for most industrial applications, mineral oils are preferred and perform well in most circumstances. Synthetic, vegetable and white oils can also be used which are suited to other specific applications.
Secondly, the thickener is responsible for the structure of the grease, metallic soaps such as lithium soup (LZR 2, Chisel paste), Calcium, aluminium and sodium are used a lot, however, there has been growing popularity of complex thickener types such as Lithium complex (LC 002, LC 002+MOS2), lithium calcium complex (HD 800-2), calcium sulphonate (CAS X 2) and aluminium complex (LMF 2 & LMF 2 W) in grease lubricants.
The final component is the additives which are used to enhance the desirable qualities of the lubricant or suppress the undesirable qualities. Boundary lubricants are used to reduce friction and wear without any damage on metal surfaces during extreme loading or very slow speeds. Examples of these include molybdenum disulfide as seen in both LC002 +MoS2 and our chisel paste. KAJO chisel/hammer paste also includes a boundary lubricant called graphite due to its effects on heavy loading jobs.
What’s right for you!
We always recommend greasing your machine as stated on the operator's manual or maintenance manual that came with the machine, which specifies a suitable grease type.
The first thing to look at is the operating temperature range of your machine you can usually find this in your machines operator manual and sometimes even onboard your machine if it has an internal telematic system. This is important to figure out as different greases work better with different temperature ranges, and you want to ensure you are lubricating your machine sufficiently to avoid damage and down time.
The next thing is the load and pressure conditions, are you needing an extreme pressure (EP) grease? If your machine is working under heavy loads or shock loads normal grease may squeeze out or fail to maintain a lubricating film over the bearing or component.
Operating speeds also need to be taken into consideration, does your machine have slow moving or fast-moving parts? Slow moving parts need a thicker, tackier grease like HD 800-2 that stays in place and doesn’t squeeze out under pressure. Fast moving parts however such as high-speed bearings need a thin, stable lubricating film that flows quickly and evenly such as LC 002. Using the wrong grease can cause oxidation, overheating and resistance in your machine.
Now ask yourself ‘what environment will I be working in?’ this will give you an idea of grease type, for example if you were working in a food safe environment KAJOs food grade grease would be suitable. Working in a very wet environment you would need a water-resistant grease such as KAJO HD 800-2 and so on. If you were operating in a corrosive type of environment perhaps CASX 2 would be more suitable. Some harsh conditions can really impact the effectiveness of your lubricant. You may be required to use a biodegradable grease when using machinery in sensitive areas such as water, forests and urban areas, we off a full biodegradable range of grease for all industries.
Compatibility is another factor to consider, mixing greases that don’t work well together can cause further issues with your machine! We have compiled a compatibility chart to make this one easy- Avoid using incompatible greases as this could render one or both useless, thus meaning your machine won’t be protected.
Lastly but not least important, is checking the industry standards for your machine, making sure that the company you are purchasing grease from meets the specs and certifications of the industry, certain specifications must be met to maintain warranty coverage on a lot of machines and ensures that the grease is engineered to perform safely and effectively with your exact machine.
What not to do!
You might feel drawn to using one grease type for all your equipment for the sake of convenience, don’t do this! Due to the above-mentioned differences in a greases base oil, additives and thickener they do not work in the same way in different conditions. Using one grease increases risk of wear, seizure, overheating and more frequent repairs, meaning more expensive repairs, so they money you saved on just using one grease could cost you ten times the amount in the future.
We don’t recommend ignoring operating environment for this same reason, the environment directly impacts how well a grease will perform its intended job. Even something as simple as working in a wet environment and not using a suitable water-resistant grease, can mean the wet environment can literally wash away any grease used, meaning your greasing efforts are ineffective.
A big issue we see is people ignoring re-lubrication intervals that are recommended in a machine operator manual, it may seem excessive to continually grease the same parts of your machine repeatedly, but it ensures the safety of your machine and the effectiveness of your chosen grease. To extend the life span of your machine, is 10 minutes here and there worth missing out on? No! Grease regularly.
Finally, don’t risk mixing incompatible greases due to convenience, you could render your grease useless and practically waste your time with lubrication. Some greases can break others down when they are chemically not aligned. Check the compatibility chat before use.
Reach out to the experts
You may be an expert machine operator, but we know grease! So, once you figure out the above factors come to us at OxRock, and we can guide you in what KAJO grease will work most effectively with your machine so you can get the most out of it!
When you spend your hard-earned money on a pricey machine, the last thing you want to do is to hinder its performance, increase downtime or worse, cause premature damage due to an un-educated decision on the maintenance side of things!
