Automatic Lubrication System

An automatic lubrication system (ALS), often referred to as a centralized lubrication system, is a system that delivers controlled amounts of lubricant to multiple locations on a machine while the machine is operating. Even though these systems are usually fully automated, a system that requires a manual pump or button activation is still identified as a centralized lubrication system. The system can be classified into two different categories that can share a lot of the same components.

Oil systems: Oil systems primary use is for stationary manufacturing equipment such as CNC milling

Grease systems: Grease primary use is on mobile units such as trucks, mining or construction equipment.

Oil vs Grease can vary even though their primary use is mostly stationary for oil and mobile for grease, some stationary manufacturing equipment will use grease systems.

Automatic lubrication system is designed to apply lubricant in small, measured amounts over short, frequent time intervals. Time and human resource constraints and sometimes the physical location on machine often makes it impractical to manually lubricate the points. As a result, production cycles, machine availability, and manpower availability dictate the intervals at which machinery is lubricated which is not optimal for the point requiring lubrication. Auto lube systems are installed on machinery to address this problem.

Auto lube systems have many advantages over traditional methods of manual lubrication:

A typical system consists of controller/timer, pump w/reservoir, supply line, metering valves, and feed lines. Regardless of the manufacturer or type of system, all automatic lubrication systems share these 5 main components:

There are several different types of automatic lubrication systems including:

The 4 most commonly used Automatic Lubrication System types are:

A single line progressive system uses lubricant flow to cycle individual metering valves and valve assemblies. The valves consist of dispensing pistons moving back and forth in a specific bore. Each piston depends on flow from the previous piston to shift and displace lubricant. If one piston doesn’t shift, none of the following pistons will shift. Valve output is not adjustable.

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