As a non engineer, There was very little wrong an AK 47 or a 303 or old style ignition points too)) I don't have much respect for new things that are disposable. Bird can make a nest nice and cosy for many years now)) He/she can often reuse materials too)) Respect Andrew.
My daily drive is a well worn and weary 1954 Chevy truck. Adding those oilers would make owning my truck even easier. Adding simplicity is something I really love to engineer.
Yeah, lobbing in a cell or two with fixed resistors and capping it should have the same effect. I've got some cells on order to see if they do indeed produce gas. The tab has to stay on to prevent the cell from activating with ambient air, which messes up the use with a simple cell holder. But technically speaking, a 3D printed holder with suitable connections and resistor could be made.
@@bigclivedotcom I wonder what the temperature threshold is for zinc-air; maybe you could just solder the leads directly to the battery. Or if you can't get the heat up to flow it well, a spot-welder?
@@bigclivedotcom I'm going to try that idea: 3D printed holder - with external connections to try different resistor values and well sealed to a syringe (to measure gas production). FYI there seems to be two common zinc air battery sizes: 312 & 675. The 675 should give more bang (gas) for your buck as it is the larger of the two (675: 11.6mm X 5.4mm, 312: 7.9mm X 3.6mm).
The difficulty with this kind of "simple" system isn't just designing it - it's being able to manufacture every element with enough accuracy that it will work reliably and at a consistent speed.
@@pnjunction5689 - You can recover lots of components from broken appliances, etc.. But you have internet access, and most components can be ordered online for a few cents (well, a few dollars / euros / pounds in some cases, now). It's certainly cheaper and easier than woodworking, motorboat racing, or launching space telescopes. 😉
@@RFC-3514 I was talking about the current component shortage. It hit our industry pretty hard. Sure, for one off projects you can salvage parts, but not on an industrial scale.
I have some zinc air 9 volt batteries that are sealed inside an aluminized bag. They have been sitting around for about 5 years and the bags swelled up and were pressurized. The batteries are just button cells in series inside a 9 volt battery sized case. I guess this chemistry can generate a lot of gas. This is a really clever application! Someone was seriously thinking outside the box when they came up with this one.
@@psirvent8 The batteries are Duracell Procell zinc air medical batteries. They are standard 9 volt battery dimensions with the standard terminals, and their output voltage comes to rest around 9 volts a few minutes after opening the package. Not sure what the intended application is but based on the name, some sort of medical equipment.
"A lot of gas." Aluminium rockets are one proposal for refuelling insitu from the moon by mining the materials. I assume Zinc batteries are a similar method of "outgassing". Lol.
I honestly thought this was going to be a, uh, different kind of automatic lubricator. A personal one, if you will. This channel can really go either way with product tear downs.
When I worked in a factory that built mining equipment, we tried using auto-greasers, but had to go back to having employees do the greasing because the auto-greasers would get broken when parts would bump them. Lubricator jobs were highly coveted, and almost never came up for bid. Since it was a really well paying job that you rode around on a cart with a dozen different greases and oils, following a schedule, it became a short-timer job that people would use to pad out their last few years with the company.
@@rkan2 that would be a massive cage! When I built brakes, a completed brake pack for one wheel could weigh upward of 2000 lbs, and were considered small parts. A completed machine always had a shipping instruction label on the frame, and it wasn't uncommon to see 60,000 to 70,000 lbs shipping weight, and those were our smaller pieces (anything bigger would be shipped as modular units, assembled at their respective mining site). When that much weight starts swinging on a crane, you just get out of the way! Our largest products were the 797 (400 ton payload truck), 24 grader (cutting edge width 24 to 32 feet), 994 loader (loads 100 tons of material per bucket), and 657 scraper (50 cubic yard capacity, with dual engines, hydraulic elevator, and specialty hitches to be able to run multiple units in a push-pull tandem). In the factory vernacular, the 777 trucks (100 ton payload) and smaller machines were lovingly called the "lawn and garden department". 😄 But, I do agree, a cage would have protected against minor taps and would absolutely have reduced the number of broken auto-greasers! 🙂
I installed these on a few machines on site, but never knew how they worked or took one to pieces. Grease is wonderful stuff, apart from when it’s used on motor bearings. We used to get a job method on site, which would tell you to grease the bearings on some motors. The motors could weigh 300KG+ and had a bearing at the front and rear, the only problem was that if you did pump grease into the grease nipple, the grease would often enter the motor and short out the windings, then the motor would fail. The worst motor failure I ever saw was when a large motor with a 2” diameter output shaft failed. The front bearing seized, causing the output shaft to become very hot, so that that the shaft bent like a piece of rubber, this then caused all the mounting bolts on the motor to shear and the coupling to disintegrate. If you had been near it when this happened, you would have needed a change of underwear for sure 😂
Ive seen smaller drive shafts in conveyors with ceased bearings simply snap the shaft, they looked just like they have been cleanly cut across the shaft.
Can I ask why alternators and some motors have ingress points? Do they really get that hot? I wonder if people have played around with a nonconductive material to act as a heatsink? Just talking out my gas hole because I only know power equals turny
As a maintenance engineer, it's also important to remember that the daily maintenance with cleaning and lubrication is also an inspection of the machine. When the operator is performing routine maintenance, small leaks or other issues can be detected early, preventing larger issues if dealt with early enough. I have no doubt that automatic lubricators are useful in the right place, though.
We have these on tunnel ventilation fans. The shop we bought the new ones told that most go to lifts/elevators in houses so these are used for devices that "just run" most of the time.
Unfortunately, I've yet to meet an owner who is dollar wise and penny dumb, it's always the other way around. The main goal is always cutting costs(aka corners).
I remember taking one of these SKF SYSTEM 24 cartridges apart a few years ago. The old ones uses discrete SMD resistors in series and a PCB inside instead of that carbon wiper. Never figured out how they worked back then, but this video answers pretty much everything! Pretty impressive that those two tiny cells can generate enough gas to push so much grease out.
I'm mostly amazed by the fact that the gas don't escape from the canister given that it's intended to work for a year. That in it self is a remarkable feat of engineering and choice of materials.
@@ehsnils Not exactly like a tire with a slow leak that if accidentally abused ruptures releasing the entire remaining stored contents in one go, these release their self generating gas only on demand - quite a tidy process.
@@Don.Challenger I'm more considering the complete lubrication canister that if there's just a small leak the pressure pushing out the grease would never build up and it wouldn't work at all. Even a microscopic leak would make it fail.
It’s also pretty amazing that the seals work well enough not to loose the tiny volume of gases evolved; my guess is that the sealing surfaces took quite a lot of design care.
I worked for a company that repaired / rewound Electric Motors. We had a local customer who called us in to look at a motor bearing that was noisy. It was an old Brook Imperial frame Crompton Parkinson motor, only about 20HP but built like a tank. They employed an old boy to go around and grease the motor bearings once a week. There was a grease nipple on each of the bearing housings and also a bolt on the the bottom of the housing. You were supposed to undo the bolt and let the old grease ooze out the bottom as the fresh grease went in the top. I don't think he's ever done that, as when we took the end shields off they were completely filled with grease ( there was a pressed metal dome insert in the end shields to direct the air from the cooling fan ) We easily filled two large grease tins from the stuff in the compacted end shields.
Happens, I remember production complaining that the bearings were leaking huge amounts of grease, we had a look and maintenance had pumped in litres of grease over the last two years, and litres of old grease had squeezed out the other side and was falling of the crane in slabs...
This is definitely proof that a great deal of genius lies in simplicity. A basic electrochemical reaction that's been around forever, used to generate constant, steady pressure. It's really an awesome design, and I applaud the team that came up with it.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Einstein "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry This doesn't quite eliminate the need for maintenance, as someone still has to go round replacing the lubrication syringes when they reach the end of their lives, but it's damn close!
You still usually need to do other periodical maintenance, but if you can get rid of regreasings between those times, and instead apply a new/refill an automatic lubricator just at those times, it's a win
@@Zadster The quote is a summary/simplification of one of Einstein's lectures: “It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.” The razor you refer to is slightly different: "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity": Given two solutions, the simpler one is usually better / Given two explanations to an event, the simpler one is more likely the correct one.
I kind of envisioned a full-time position with the manufacturer where someone goes from one shop to another, keeping the units up to date and checking for inadvertent damage. For a nominal fee, like a service contract.
The great thing about the spring based / refillable automatic lubricators is that a) they are so very durable, and b) you can choose your lubricant. I've got a VERY early glass / brass design which dates from 1902, ,and is still fully functional (although the ?nitrile? O-Ring is showing its age!
From the date of 1902, I'd guess that the o-ring material is vulcanized natural rubber (also called "India rubber") made from natural latex found in the sap of various tree species. Industrial processes for the creation of synthetic rubbers (of which Nitrile is one) didn't come along until 1909.
@@sixstringedthing Thanks for that insight! I don't know whether the O-ring is the original, but it certainly seems rather cracked / perished, which might imply a natural rather than synthetic product.
Disposable stuff sucks I agree. If you're buying one of these you're going to keep meeting them. So by the one or the correct spring pressure and it will just live there forever.
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I'm adding a shaft support bearing to my sailboat. I'm just deciding on how to lube it and this video came up. Thanks for your timing Clive. Enjoy your videos. Our channel is quite DIY as well but with a different focus.
One of the recycling clients I work for uses these on most of their machines, thank you I didn't know how they worked. The only fault they have is when someone knocks them as often they end up sticking away from the bearing housing
They're indeed quite easy to rotate in their original install sleeve accessory. These days I usually install them with grease line to prevent ie. Chain lubricators to turn easily, if location needs it.
As someone that works in a recycling facility, these things sound like a hassle. Things getting wrapped on shafts next to bearing houseings need constant cleaning, or else plasic melting heat(and bearing failure) rapidly ensues. Nothing like hacking through 3" or wrapped up cassette and VHS tape, bale twine, random wires, and even purple lace dresses, to pull out a melted plastic ring from inside, where friction caused heat. Easy enough for a grease gun to be used when doing this other maintenance.
@@ravenbarsrepairs5594 You indeed work at a recycling facility! Friday was the cleaning day at our place, getting rid of everything that wrapped around the rollers for the conveyor belt. Fun times with clippers ;)
@@johanmetreus1268 At one point I had the safety guy make me get rid of "Martha Stewarts Knife Collection". I've found that serrated steak knives and dikes are the best tools to attack.
The thing that I love about Clive and AvE is that they are very intelligent but they don't pretend to know everything. They have a style that encourage us to learn together. Thank you and keep it up!
Fascinating! I can think of quite a few uses for this sort of device, to include long-term fertilization of gardens, additives for outdoor ponds, perhaps even things such as a gradual dispensing of a camphor-containing compound for assured rust prevention on tooling? I'm sure I'll think of other uses.
Thanks Clive, "Just incase anybody has ever had any problem doing that" - Thanks for the tip - you learn something new everyday . Might injure myself less next time I grease those trunions!
Hi Clive, I know a little about zinc-air batteries. Camera light meters used to use mercury batteries because they emit a very constant voltage until they die, and they then suddenly drop to zero. This was obviously very important for metering, especially with simple light meters. When mercury cells were outlawed, the recommended replacements were zinc-air cells because they have the same flat-discharge curve as mercury cells. That fits your thought about the voltage not dropping off.
@@vhfgamer Its worth noting that its not quite as flat, there is a bit of a slope at the end where it appears to be good, but has a lower voltage. Also the voltage is different. You can get little cases that go over commonly available silver cells that have voltage regulators that make them put out the right voltage for vintage cameras. They are a tad expensive, but it saves the cost of paying someone to recalibrate the meter for newer batteries.
@@vhfgamer Sure. If you are mechanically inclined (or brave) there is a small Potentiometer that can be turned with a small screwdriver somewhere under the outer shell of the camera. I don't take cameras apart though. I used to just find the exposure compensation dial and with a little trial and error figure out where to set it.Practically, unless you are using slide film, there is enough latitude in the film exposure to just use it as is, in my experience.
For a product that carries out a task that sounds so simple it really is interesting to see the inner workings of it. Clever stuff. I also love how calmly you applied "unreasonable force" at 5:14 lol
I’ve seen air fresheners that work on the electro-chemical system. One is called “TCELL” by Rubbermaid. It uses a button cell to pressurize the fragrance and push it onto a wick. I was fascinated with these for a year. Amazing tech.
That's insane, I never would have imagined it to be SO SIMPLE, yet so brilliant at the same time. To even think of this, and see it as a possibility. Wow.
We use these all over the machines we make. I never had a chance to find a broken/empty one to take apart. And one of our CNC centers has a big one (size of a toilet paper roll), uses 2 AA batteries, and the timer is set via DIP switches. It uses a nitrogen gas tank.
Very interesting, yet so simple and brilliant! All of them. By the way, it's not exactly a potentiometer, but a variable resistor. It has two terminals instead of three.
I always knew it as a potentiometer, just using only some of the 3 pins. In this device it's entirely custom, not a standard type mounted into the circuit.
How you know Clive is a spark... All of the stuff he has, particularly the grease gun and hose isn't absolutely caked in grease and shit. Edit: being a spark is a part of my job too lol, I'm lucky to see many sides of engineering, wasn't a dig big man, I love ya.
We used these on conveyor belt bearings around the recycling plant I worked in, saved us a lot of hassle with the bearing that weren't readily accessible (I'm talking belts 50' in the air that needed a cherry picker to access).
How interesting and also simple - I wonder how the designer came up with it.....brillant! High five to Clive - always opening things and then carefully explaining how they work.
I guess, like many, if not most inventions, it was found by accident 😁 or the designer had a hearing aid, found a battery in its packaging blown up and went investigating 😉
It's just an "evolution" of older systems, like the one with the chemical tablet. They're using a battery and a variable resistance to do the same as the tablets with different gas release rates.
@@RFC-3514 if the button cell itself wouldn't produce the gas, I'd have expected some heating element for example. The simplicity of this design is the button cells have two functons: power supply & gas generator at the same time.
@@RFC-3514 the batteries deliver the power to produce the gas by itself, regulated by the "potentiometer" it produces more or less gas. But at some point that gassing will stop because the battery is empty, either from chemical view or electrical view.
We used to sell Zinc-Air batteries as a replacement for NLA Mercury 1.35v cells in vintage cameras. However, we had issues with corrosion forming while the batteries were still in their packaging with the seal attached. I wonder if SKF have found a better quality battery than the ones we were being supplied ;)
Genius design. Now I want to know how much gas is generated over a fixed time. Seal one of the cells inside a balloon with a fixed resistor across it and leave for a few days?
@@stepheneyles2198 agreed. Seal it in a small chamber with a pressure gauge, chart pressure rise at regular intervals and then use universal gas laws to calculate subsequent volumes and use as basis for any further calculations you need. It would seem the release of gas is linear in nature in relation to increase in resistance so no need for plotting at many different resistances once you confirm that
A few years ago I regularly used a motorized/battery powered one with replacable Batteries and lubricant cartridges in an industrial paintline for its conveyors Ball bearings. It had a push button to prefill the lubricant line at install and a dip switch or maybe a potentiometer (not sure anymore) to control the timing.
At my work we have a couple of those motorized auto-lubricators with dip switches for setting the dispensing period. Since it was the only machine with the auto-lubers, and the batteries need periodic replacing, the auto-lubers were eventually removed, and the machine is manually lubricated like everything else!
I had difficulty convincing management that it would be beneficial to install these, especially in locations that were difficult to get to that were seldom, if ever, greased. I was able to get them to do it after showing them a bearing that had to be replaced on a 2 year old conveyor that still had the paint on the grease Zerk. I added steel brake lines to keep them out of harms way.
And there is the answer...install remote grease zerks/nipples in a combined location which is easy to reach so the greae gunner can lubricate the bearings with little effort or danger. Labels with the number of pumps on each zerk....
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq Remote greasing comes with it's own problems. The farther away you get from the greasing point, the more chance there is that the remote lines could be damaged. It's best if someone actually looks at the bearing that's being greased. When it's -20F it can be difficult to get grease to go through longer lines.
I worked for them as supplier a long time ago when they bought Lincoln Lubrication. I have seen their complex lubrication systems with plenty of tubes all over huge machines, but never thought they do such small, and smart, lubricators.
i always suspected the batteries release the gas in these things. that was interesting to see everything up close, thanks! ALSO: they are really not that accurate, it highly depends on the altitude they are used in.
Temperature does make a small difference, if you use the Simalube version (the originals) they are infinitely adjustable between 1 and 12 months and a slight tweak can make them very precise
I rebuild cars and engines for fun as a hobby. I cannot believe, over the 100s of hours of car UA-camrs I've watched, YOU are the first person to show how to properly remove a grease gun from a zerk. My man!
Looks like an ideal fitting on many combine harvester bearings, remote mounted with a flexible pipe between the bearing and the grease unit. Set for two or three months in the UK, depending on the expected harvest length. it would seem to be the ideal size and indeed an ideal disposable maintenance solution. Just check every couple of days that the grease is getting to the bearing and replace annually.
I can't believe I watched this whole video. As you say at the end, it's all summed up in a few words... but you milked 14 minutes of my life away about a device with two batteries and a resistor. Bravo... Well done, sir!
@@bigclivedotcom Yes, very unusual indeed. But when we mostly come here for electronics and your ability to break down the schematic, and you start off with "Let me show you the schematic, you're not going to be impressed" that just had me cracking up. And then I realized that wow... we all really watched a guy with a great knowledge of electronics, talk to us for 14 minutes about two batteries and a resistor. AND NOW you've also got me wasting more time replying. Damn you.
we use lots of these in our feed pelleting mill, mostly on conveyors of raw materials. These cartridges do save a lot of time and effort for maintenence, but we've found them unsuitable for high temperature areas as the grease dries out and turns into a wax like consistency.
Is the high temperature area small or large? If it's small, some plumbing to get the cartridge placed further away where it's cool could help. We have maybe 500 grease points, and it takes around 2 hours for a person to go through them all with a pneumaticly powered grease gun. We had cartridges like that on some machines that were bought second hand, the cartridges all discharged while the machine was in storage, creating somewhat of a mess. We have central lubrication systems where you have one tank and plunger, and various distribution methods, plus lots and lots of plumbing. The good thing is that they don't pump alot of grease all over if the machine is at a standstill for a month or two. The disadvantage is that grease tends to dry out, and you have no real insight into whether a lubrication point is getting lubed or not. A "Grease monkey" with a manual grease gun will be able to tell if a nipple is blocked or not. Automatics, as commonly installed, don't seem to provide the same feedback. Your feedback is when the bearing fails.
I use these a lot at work. Good things. I use these in various different grease and oil grades. Been planning to buy the smaller ones for few places. I'd bet they have single cell inside as the diameter and the top end looks absolutely identical on all of them 🙂
@@ArmyCop accuracy is incredibly good. Max two weeks deviation is what I've seen. Considering the amount for period ratio, in my books that's about perfect. Also can't recall seeing them get empty earlier than set or at least it happens very seldom. Though it could be that it's because I usually install these with small amount of grease line which creates obviously some resistance always.
I used to work for an engineering supply company and sold all these from time to time. I always found them fascinating but never saw inside or knew exactly how they worked. Thank you for enlightening me Clive!
Had a few if these at a factory I used to work at. Drove me nuts trying to figure out how it worked. Never could get ahold of an old one to take apart and was always told they worked by "magic". Finally I understand how that pesky skf automatic greaser works...thanks clive!
Shorted zinc-air battery without oxygen will produce hydrogen (~0,3 H2 liter at normal pressure per gram of ideal zinc water mixture, because of casing, additives etc. in practice probably more like 0,1 H2 liter per gram of battery if there is sufficient amout of water) I see here some explosion potential, maybe worth trying?
The Sidel bottle blowers at work use auto greasers with a replacement battery pack. The joys of working in a soft drinks factory. A very informative video.
They may be custom, but the patent linked in the description seems to hint at zinc air cells exhibiting this effect. I have some cells on order to test.
Elegant simplicity! In most applications the gas is a by-product of the process, here the gas IS the process. SKF are a well respected bearing manufacturer, so not altogether surprising they have lubrication solutions. What a schematic!
Propose an experiment to confirm: Solder a resistor across the batteries and stuff them into a balloon so see if/how much the balloon inflates. Would be neat to have an idea how much gas they actually produce.
I think I'll do it right now given how ridiculously simple it looks. One caveat though is standard alkaline batteries don't have breathing or vent holes, therefore the excess pressure will fatigue the rubber gaskets and potentially make them fail, releasing battery electrolyte... Inside the balloon. Maybe not such a big deal after all...
The volume of that piston looks to be only a few cubic centimetres with a minimum production time of a month which is the setting for maximum production rate. Normal rubber balloons can leak hundreds of times that volume that in a few days. You're probably better off eating a bag of crisps then heat sealing the edge with a kitchen vacuum resealer as the metalised foil is much more air resistant than latex.
This is what great engineering looks like. It's simple, effective, offers a range of output speeds from a single unit, and is inexpensive to manufacture relative to other options.
We sell the SKF automatic lubricator on a regular basis, it's such a simple and cheap way to lubricate constantly and efficiently even the hardest-to-reach places
I use to work in a steel mill as a break down electrician. These auto geezers were a new thing back then (20 years ago). I do remember an adjustable version even back then. The adjustment was made by turning a dial the full diameter of the geeezer. I wonder is it was the same tech?
wow, Im amazed that those tiny batteries can actually produce that amount of gas and pressure, pretty crazy! The chemical one was also very interesting
From what I can see, the waste product of the zinc+air+elctrolyte reaction is water, which can then react corrosively with the zinc, releasing Hydrogen. So in effect, gradually replacing the O2 in the plunger with H2.
At the large enlargement photo at 13:37 (giggity) one can see that the resistive layer has been calibrated with a laser burning off some of the black layer. They have cut the layer from the center out (the little brighter spikes). On the left side there is one cut that is clearly shorter. This way I suspect the manufacturer can account for the uneven thickness of the resistive layer.
In the fabrication shop I used to work at, it usually took 2 guys about 4 hours to grease 12 machines, twice a year. So that's about $50 x 4 hours x 2 per year, or about $400. Compare that to $37 per unit x 12 or about $444, assuming each machine needs only one unit. The older machines often needed grease in multiple locations.
We use a low tech device for giving intravenous antibiotics. It uses a standard size syringe in a spring loaded device. The infusion rate is determined by a restriction in the tubing that connects to the iv in your arm. It can push 30 mls in anything from 15 minutes to 1 week, depending on the tube used. Springfusor.
Good stuff! I've often seen these empty canisters discarded by the side of the railway and wondered what they were. I'd assume they are used for lubricating points. You do also get the huge grease pots that are activated by trains as they roll over them and the wheels hit a little plunger.
The RR I work for uses them to lubricate external locking mechanism for point machines. They mostly work well but in some locations the vibration from trains snaps them off.
Genius! I love things like this where clearly, the designer has a truly deep knowledge of their topic, or can at least use Google ;). Now we need the video on the chemistry please Clive.
Huh. Do zinc-air batteries not need fresh air as they run? Or is there enough in the chamber at the start of the run? Or enough diffuses through the plastic housing?
We have these, but larger in the trucking industry. There's a pot of about half a gallon of grease affixed to the truck chassis, lines to every non rotary grease fitting. We don't measure in months, but hours. I had mine set for grease every 6 hours, which is excellent in winter for pushing water out of steering joints and suspension bushings. All run by a small electric motor and a small piston pump. You can even buy a kit to auto-grease the 5th wheel. Very handy indeed.
Ah yes Mr. Clive. At last something I know a bit about. I do know its limitations. If you chose this and do away with the Greaser employee then bear in mind. It lets you down frequently in the real world especially by melting its small plastic thread if it fails to deliver the correct quantity. It is a dark art setting them. If it is not linked to feed back tech then buyer beware. I have seen these melted and lying on the ground still squirting their grease while the machine slowly kills itself. Vibration and a term describing a ''bearing wanting a drink'' and cracking under strong sunlight are some of its enemy's. Nice idea. But if you value your machine be careful.
@@bigclivedotcom I think this would be worth trying, although you're right, the explosion containment pie dish shouldn't be necessary. If the gas output is linear with load, then a 1 ohm load should get the device to shoot its wad (a grease cup's worth of gas) in about 17 minutes. Maybe wire it up to a low resistance load and drop it into some distilled water to see the bubbles.
Wymark have been producing their Greasomatic for over 50 years. They use a chemical gas generator based on metal dissolving in acid (I think) generating hydrogen, to force the grease out. The little capsule that contains the metal is programmed before it's release, by turning an external knob which opens or closes an orifice that allows the acid into the casule. Greasomatics are totally sealed. They have nice cut away diagrams on their website.
I'm pretty sure it's not a conventional Zn-air cell here. In the absence of O2, those cells don't do anything, far less generate substantial amounts of gas. My guess is it's a Zn-air type cell with some added magic ingredient such that when the battery is shorted (or partially so) it generates enough oxygen to activate the cell, and the charge is then used to liberate gas from some other substance (e.g. maybe Al/HCl which generates hydrogen?)
The basis of this design is not the grease pump but the Stauffer bushing. Filled with grease, the mechanic would occasionally go by and give the screw-on cover a twist to supply a helping of grease to the bearing. I used a version of this with a gear motor that can be controlled digitally. (Not for lubrication, but for dispersal of a contaminant in a test configuration)
The Skf model I have used for 10 years lubricates bearings excellently. works very well. Sometimes getting someone gas-powered from England is often rubbish rarely working.
I like the spring one best. No over engineering with goofy gasses and seals, just a clear tube with a spring. You can see how much is left, and it's refillable!
There is beauty in the pure simplicity of this device. This is one of the things where you can imagine some person thinking "how can I make this better?," Then all of a sudden a light bulb turns on in their mind. This is definitely a true case of thinking outside the box. Kudos to the designer.
wow simple thinking and sophisticated design. since they are not replacing all the grease at one time but only keeping the bearing supplied they can work at low pressure and low flow-rate. that is really deep analysis
After the you showed all "automatic" system with coils, I was 100% sure this would just be a coil with adjustable pretension. So glad I was wrong. This system is so simple, must be so cheap to manucfature. Insane
Of all the ones we've used at the Tire Plant, the electro-lubers from TIMKEN are leaps and bounds more advanced. The TIMKIN use a DC motor to slowly advance the grease.
6:57 This thing doesn't "replace" people. Many mechanisms need a fairly accurate amount of lubrication to work, a person may forget to lubricate it or lubricate too much. Usually, mechanisms that require regular lubrication are serviced regularly, and such devices eliminate the need to measure the exact amount of lubrication and increase the intervals between maintenance.
I have something similar to the simplest one on my trailer bearings. The spring and piston push the grease straight into the bearing, and the center of the top is where you refill.
There is also a motor driven unit that's battery powered off 2 x AA batteries and designed to be screwed onto a replacement cartridge. Drives a plunger to firce tge grease out and programmable in overall time , g/shot or g/month. Fascinating devices.
These have been around for some time, i used to go to factories and replace them, but never knew quite how they worked, Great breakdown Clive, just goes to show how tech has improved in the factories, which is where all the tech advances happen ;) This does not come purely from a lab or university, but engineers needing to fix a siple problem like auto lubrication. Trucks use compressed air from the brake system and a large escarpment wheel, every 10 goes on the brakes and the wheel bearings etc get a dose of grease. But truckers who hit the brake a lot will get excess grease coming out into the brake drum (squeezing past the seal) which means no more brakes but sometimes they even catch fire!. Note to truckers; brake for no-one :D
At last - a circuit diagram that I can follow!
You and me both, brother. ;)
Me too
Even fixing a doorbell may challenge some folks 😏
Was it -- or ---- for + on the cells?
@@Slikx666 the longer one is positive +
As an engineer, the simpler the way something is done the more respect you have for the people that designed it.
As a non engineer, There was very little wrong an AK 47 or a 303 or old style ignition points too)) I don't have much respect for new things that are disposable. Bird can make a nest nice and cosy for many years now)) He/she can often reuse materials too)) Respect Andrew.
"An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity."
-Terry A. Davis
My daily drive is a well worn and weary 1954 Chevy truck. Adding those oilers would make owning my truck even easier. Adding simplicity is something I really love to engineer.
Robust cheap *and* fast. You just need the engineering knowledge to do it. :)
but the more boring it is to watch and disassemble
Devilishly simple!
I'm hitting the lathe to make a skookum re-fillable version.
Even simpler: fill pipe with grease, toss in zinc coin cell with resistor bridge, seal and cap.
Yeah, lobbing in a cell or two with fixed resistors and capping it should have the same effect. I've got some cells on order to see if they do indeed produce gas. The tab has to stay on to prevent the cell from activating with ambient air, which messes up the use with a simple cell holder. But technically speaking, a 3D printed holder with suitable connections and resistor could be made.
@@bigclivedotcom I wonder what the temperature threshold is for zinc-air; maybe you could just solder the leads directly to the battery. Or if you can't get the heat up to flow it well, a spot-welder?
@@bigclivedotcom I'm going to try that idea: 3D printed holder - with external connections to try different resistor values and well sealed to a syringe (to measure gas production). FYI there seems to be two common zinc air battery sizes: 312 & 675. The 675 should give more bang (gas) for your buck as it is the larger of the two (675: 11.6mm X 5.4mm, 312: 7.9mm X 3.6mm).
The difficulty with this kind of "simple" system isn't just designing it - it's being able to manufacture every element with enough accuracy that it will work reliably and at a consistent speed.
Fast, cheap, good.
Pick two.
@@mezmerizer0266 - With electronics, you get all 3. ;-)
@@RFC-3514 As long as you're able to buy electronic components...
@@pnjunction5689 - You can recover lots of components from broken appliances, etc.. But you have internet access, and most components can be ordered online for a few cents (well, a few dollars / euros / pounds in some cases, now).
It's certainly cheaper and easier than woodworking, motorboat racing, or launching space telescopes. 😉
@@RFC-3514 I was talking about the current component shortage. It hit our industry pretty hard. Sure, for one off projects you can salvage parts, but not on an industrial scale.
I have some zinc air 9 volt batteries that are sealed inside an aluminized bag. They have been sitting around for about 5 years and the bags swelled up and were pressurized. The batteries are just button cells in series inside a 9 volt battery sized case. I guess this chemistry can generate a lot of gas. This is a really clever application! Someone was seriously thinking outside the box when they came up with this one.
Aren't you talking about electric fence batteries that are non-rechargeable and look pretty much like a smaller car battery ?
@@psirvent8 The batteries are Duracell Procell zinc air medical batteries. They are standard 9 volt battery dimensions with the standard terminals, and their output voltage comes to rest around 9 volts a few minutes after opening the package. Not sure what the intended application is but based on the name, some sort of medical equipment.
"A lot of gas." Aluminium rockets are one proposal for refuelling insitu from the moon by mining the materials. I assume Zinc batteries are a similar method of "outgassing". Lol.
There really are some very bright people out there. Pity none are in our government.
I honestly thought this was going to be a, uh, different kind of automatic lubricator. A personal one, if you will. This channel can really go either way with product tear downs.
🥵
Dirty minds think.... er... something... the design of this thing was REALLY good.
The pump action manual greaser has a certain appeal......
It is tapping the M10 thread for fitment that is the sod
The term "grease nipple" is used enough :)
When I worked in a factory that built mining equipment, we tried using auto-greasers, but had to go back to having employees do the greasing because the auto-greasers would get broken when parts would bump them. Lubricator jobs were highly coveted, and almost never came up for bid. Since it was a really well paying job that you rode around on a cart with a dozen different greases and oils, following a schedule, it became a short-timer job that people would use to pad out their last few years with the company.
sounds like the grease fittings needed some welding :P
@@rkan2 Maybe just removal and insert a small metal disk under the fitting....
@@ravenbarsrepairs5594 I was thinking like protective cage to take the hit
Knowing what to put where and when...
Some don't get it and can bring it all to a grinding halt.
@@rkan2 that would be a massive cage! When I built brakes, a completed brake pack for one wheel could weigh upward of 2000 lbs, and were considered small parts. A completed machine always had a shipping instruction label on the frame, and it wasn't uncommon to see 60,000 to 70,000 lbs shipping weight, and those were our smaller pieces (anything bigger would be shipped as modular units, assembled at their respective mining site). When that much weight starts swinging on a crane, you just get out of the way! Our largest products were the 797 (400 ton payload truck), 24 grader (cutting edge width 24 to 32 feet), 994 loader (loads 100 tons of material per bucket), and 657 scraper (50 cubic yard capacity, with dual engines, hydraulic elevator, and specialty hitches to be able to run multiple units in a push-pull tandem). In the factory vernacular, the 777 trucks (100 ton payload) and smaller machines were lovingly called the "lawn and garden department". 😄 But, I do agree, a cage would have protected against minor taps and would absolutely have reduced the number of broken auto-greasers! 🙂
I installed these on a few machines on site, but never knew how they worked or took one to pieces. Grease is wonderful stuff, apart from when it’s used on motor bearings. We used to get a job method on site, which would tell you to grease the bearings on some motors. The motors could weigh 300KG+ and had a bearing at the front and rear, the only problem was that if you did pump grease into the grease nipple, the grease would often enter the motor and short out the windings, then the motor would fail. The worst motor failure I ever saw was when a large motor with a 2” diameter output shaft failed. The front bearing seized, causing the output shaft to become very hot, so that that the shaft bent like a piece of rubber, this then caused all the mounting bolts on the motor to shear and the coupling to disintegrate. If you had been near it when this happened, you would have needed a change of underwear for sure 😂
Ive seen smaller drive shafts in conveyors with ceased bearings simply snap the shaft, they looked just like they have been cleanly cut across the shaft.
Most have the plug you need to pull out and let the old
Grease come out.
Wouldn't just.. using dielectric grease solve this?
Can I ask why alternators and some motors have ingress points? Do they really get that hot? I wonder if people have played around with a nonconductive material to act as a heatsink? Just talking out my gas hole because I only know power equals turny
Did the grease itself cause short circuits, or did it degrade the insulation on the windings causing them to short together?
As a maintenance engineer, it's also important to remember that the daily maintenance with cleaning and lubrication is also an inspection of the machine. When the operator is performing routine maintenance, small leaks or other issues can be detected early, preventing larger issues if dealt with early enough.
I have no doubt that automatic lubricators are useful in the right place, though.
We have these on tunnel ventilation fans. The shop we bought the new ones told that most go to lifts/elevators in houses so these are used for devices that "just run" most of the time.
Unfortunately, I've yet to meet an owner who is dollar wise and penny dumb, it's always the other way around. The main goal is always cutting costs(aka corners).
I remember taking one of these SKF SYSTEM 24 cartridges apart a few years ago. The old ones uses discrete SMD resistors in series and a PCB inside instead of that carbon wiper. Never figured out how they worked back then, but this video answers pretty much everything! Pretty impressive that those two tiny cells can generate enough gas to push so much grease out.
They give their lives so that other machinery may live.
I'm mostly amazed by the fact that the gas don't escape from the canister given that it's intended to work for a year. That in it self is a remarkable feat of engineering and choice of materials.
@@ehsnils Not exactly like a tire with a slow leak that if accidentally abused ruptures releasing the entire remaining stored contents in one go, these release their self generating gas only on demand - quite a tidy process.
@@Don.Challenger I'm more considering the complete lubrication canister that if there's just a small leak the pressure pushing out the grease would never build up and it wouldn't work at all. Even a microscopic leak would make it fail.
It’s also pretty amazing that the seals work well enough not to loose the tiny volume of gases evolved; my guess is that the sealing surfaces took quite a lot of design care.
As a previous SKF sales person for many years, it was great to see your presentation, great work.
I worked for a company that repaired / rewound Electric Motors. We had a local customer who called us in to look at a motor bearing that was noisy. It was an old Brook Imperial frame Crompton Parkinson motor, only about 20HP but built like a tank. They employed an old boy to go around and grease the motor bearings once a week. There was a grease nipple on each of the bearing housings and also a bolt on the the bottom of the housing. You were supposed to undo the bolt and let the old grease ooze out the bottom as the fresh grease went in the top. I don't think he's ever done that, as when we took the end shields off they were completely filled with grease ( there was a pressed metal dome insert in the end shields to direct the air from the cooling fan ) We easily filled two large grease tins from the stuff in the compacted end shields.
Happens, I remember production complaining that the bearings were leaking huge amounts of grease, we had a look and maintenance had pumped in litres of grease over the last two years, and litres of old grease had squeezed out the other side and was falling of the crane in slabs...
This is definitely proof that a great deal of genius lies in simplicity. A basic electrochemical reaction that's been around forever, used to generate constant, steady pressure. It's really an awesome design, and I applaud the team that came up with it.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Einstein
"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
This doesn't quite eliminate the need for maintenance, as someone still has to go round replacing the lubrication syringes when they reach the end of their lives, but it's damn close!
Not Einstein. Commonly called Ockham's Razor. William of Ockham (c. 1287-1347) but not invented by him, derived from many other philosopher's works.
You still usually need to do other periodical maintenance, but if you can get rid of regreasings between those times, and instead apply a new/refill an automatic lubricator just at those times, it's a win
@@Zadster The quote is a summary/simplification of one of Einstein's lectures:
“It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.”
The razor you refer to is slightly different: "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity":
Given two solutions, the simpler one is usually better / Given two explanations to an event, the simpler one is more likely the correct one.
Should only be one battery then ;)
I kind of envisioned a full-time position with the manufacturer where someone goes from one shop to another, keeping the units up to date and checking for inadvertent damage. For a nominal fee, like a service contract.
The great thing about the spring based / refillable automatic lubricators is that a) they are so very durable, and b) you can choose your lubricant. I've got a VERY early glass / brass design which dates from 1902, ,and is still fully functional (although the ?nitrile? O-Ring is showing its age!
From the date of 1902, I'd guess that the o-ring material is vulcanized natural rubber (also called "India rubber") made from natural latex found in the sap of various tree species.
Industrial processes for the creation of synthetic rubbers (of which Nitrile is one) didn't come along until 1909.
@@sixstringedthing Thanks for that insight! I don't know whether the O-ring is the original, but it certainly seems rather cracked / perished, which might imply a natural rather than synthetic product.
with the SKF ones you can buy different grease fills to suit your application
Disposable stuff sucks I agree. If you're buying one of these you're going to keep meeting them. So by the one or the correct spring pressure and it will just live there forever.
Who on earth came up with this idea? Such an elegant system.
Might be a patent number somewhere on the packaging....
@@BarryRowlingsonBaz It's in the video description!
First done by a Switzerland company called Simatec, they are a hydrogen producing cell,
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I'm adding a shaft support bearing to my sailboat. I'm just deciding on how to lube it and this video came up. Thanks for your timing Clive.
Enjoy your videos. Our channel is quite DIY as well but with a different focus.
Whoever developed that must have been an expert in the battery technology having alot of knowledge about the gas release and pressures involved.
One of the recycling clients I work for uses these on most of their machines, thank you I didn't know how they worked. The only fault they have is when someone knocks them as often they end up sticking away from the bearing housing
They're indeed quite easy to rotate in their original install sleeve accessory. These days I usually install them with grease line to prevent ie. Chain lubricators to turn easily, if location needs it.
As someone that works in a recycling facility, these things sound like a hassle. Things getting wrapped on shafts next to bearing houseings need constant cleaning, or else plasic melting heat(and bearing failure) rapidly ensues. Nothing like hacking through 3" or wrapped up cassette and VHS tape, bale twine, random wires, and even purple lace dresses, to pull out a melted plastic ring from inside, where friction caused heat. Easy enough for a grease gun to be used when doing this other maintenance.
@@ravenbarsrepairs5594 You indeed work at a recycling facility!
Friday was the cleaning day at our place, getting rid of everything that wrapped around the rollers for the conveyor belt. Fun times with clippers ;)
@@johanmetreus1268 At one point I had the safety guy make me get rid of "Martha Stewarts Knife Collection". I've found that serrated steak knives and dikes are the best tools to attack.
@@ravenbarsrepairs5594 UK?
The thing that I love about Clive and AvE is that they are very intelligent but they don't pretend to know everything. They have a style that encourage us to learn together. Thank you and keep it up!
Wow! I would never have guessed that the gas release from such small things can be controlled so precisely and over such a long time!
Fascinating! I can think of quite a few uses for this sort of device, to include long-term fertilization of gardens, additives for outdoor ponds, perhaps even things such as a gradual dispensing of a camphor-containing compound for assured rust prevention on tooling? I'm sure I'll think of other uses.
Thanks Clive, "Just incase anybody has ever had any problem doing that" - Thanks for the tip - you learn something new everyday . Might injure myself less next time I grease those trunions!
The way that they've exploited the characteristics of a standard zinc-air battery to do the gas generation is absolutely amazing.
The thinking behind that isn't a million miles away from how 'time of flight' fuses worked on WW1 British shrapnel shells!
Hi Clive,
I know a little about zinc-air batteries. Camera light meters used to use mercury batteries because they emit a very constant voltage until they die, and they then suddenly drop to zero. This was obviously very important for metering, especially with simple light meters. When mercury cells were outlawed, the recommended replacements were zinc-air cells because they have the same flat-discharge curve as mercury cells. That fits your thought about the voltage not dropping off.
Oh hey! I had no idea these cells could replace those mercury cells in light meters! Thanks! I was wondering what to do for my old SLR cameras!
@@vhfgamer Its worth noting that its not quite as flat, there is a bit of a slope at the end where it appears to be good, but has a lower voltage. Also the voltage is different. You can get little cases that go over commonly available silver cells that have voltage regulators that make them put out the right voltage for vintage cameras. They are a tad expensive, but it saves the cost of paying someone to recalibrate the meter for newer batteries.
@@vhfgamer Sure. If you are mechanically inclined (or brave) there is a small Potentiometer that can be turned with a small screwdriver somewhere under the outer shell of the camera. I don't take cameras apart though. I used to just find the exposure compensation dial and with a little trial and error figure out where to set it.Practically, unless you are using slide film, there is enough latitude in the film exposure to just use it as is, in my experience.
For a product that carries out a task that sounds so simple it really is interesting to see the inner workings of it. Clever stuff. I also love how calmly you applied "unreasonable force" at 5:14 lol
I’ve seen air fresheners that work on the electro-chemical system. One is called “TCELL” by Rubbermaid. It uses a button cell to pressurize the fragrance and push it onto a wick. I was fascinated with these for a year. Amazing tech.
I just saw that you have a video on the Rubbermaid fresheners! 😊
That's insane, I never would have imagined it to be SO SIMPLE, yet so brilliant at the same time. To even think of this, and see it as a possibility. Wow.
We use these all over the machines we make. I never had a chance to find a broken/empty one to take apart.
And one of our CNC centers has a big one (size of a toilet paper roll), uses 2 AA batteries, and the timer is set via DIP switches. It uses a nitrogen gas tank.
What the nitrogen tank looks like ?
Is it all contained within the unit or attached next to it and connected via a hose ?
I think those actually use electrolysis of urea
If it has 2 AA batteries it is an electro mechanical unit not gas
@@mrbumcraic5046 pretty sure AvE took apart one that was a gas generator based around urea and it had 2 AA sized batteries
@@mrbumcraic5046 ua-cam.com/video/ydhndNX_8KI/v-deo.html
Very interesting, yet so simple and brilliant! All of them.
By the way, it's not exactly a potentiometer, but a variable resistor. It has two terminals instead of three.
I've always called it a carbon film variable resistor.
Back in my day it was a rheostat.
@@securitycamera8776 "Rheostat" from the Greek ρωή (flow) and στάση (stopping). Nice word that explains what the component does (flow-stopper)
I was taught variable resistor.
I always knew it as a potentiometer, just using only some of the 3 pins. In this device it's entirely custom, not a standard type mounted into the circuit.
How you know Clive is a spark... All of the stuff he has, particularly the grease gun and hose isn't absolutely caked in grease and shit.
Edit: being a spark is a part of my job too lol, I'm lucky to see many sides of engineering, wasn't a dig big man, I love ya.
It's a shiny new one.
@@bigclivedotcom Yeah, but sparky's tools stay shiny and new a lot longer than mechanical engineers kit. :D
Wont ask why you were searching for automatic lubricators big man. Thats a class wee system they've come up with.
We used these on conveyor belt bearings around the recycling plant I worked in, saved us a lot of hassle with the bearing that weren't readily accessible (I'm talking belts 50' in the air that needed a cherry picker to access).
How interesting and also simple - I wonder how the designer came up with it.....brillant! High five to Clive - always opening things and then carefully explaining how they work.
I guess, like many, if not most inventions, it was found by accident 😁 or the designer had a hearing aid, found a battery in its packaging blown up and went investigating 😉
It's just an "evolution" of older systems, like the one with the chemical tablet. They're using a battery and a variable resistance to do the same as the tablets with different gas release rates.
@@RFC-3514 if the button cell itself wouldn't produce the gas, I'd have expected some heating element for example. The simplicity of this design is the button cells have two functons: power supply & gas generator at the same time.
@@SystemX1983 - Power supply?
@@RFC-3514 the batteries deliver the power to produce the gas by itself, regulated by the "potentiometer" it produces more or less gas. But at some point that gassing will stop because the battery is empty, either from chemical view or electrical view.
We used to sell Zinc-Air batteries as a replacement for NLA Mercury 1.35v cells in vintage cameras. However, we had issues with corrosion forming while the batteries were still in their packaging with the seal attached. I wonder if SKF have found a better quality battery than the ones we were being supplied ;)
Who made your zinc-air batteries? :P
Actually, they power their device entirely from the problem!
Genius design. Now I want to know how much gas is generated over a fixed time. Seal one of the cells inside a balloon with a fixed resistor across it and leave for a few days?
You might find that the gas leaks out through the walls of the balloon faster than the cell generates it!
There's no gas evolution from a normal zinc air cell...
@@stepheneyles2198 Would a condom work any better ?
@@stepheneyles2198 agreed. Seal it in a small chamber with a pressure gauge, chart pressure rise at regular intervals and then use universal gas laws to calculate subsequent volumes and use as basis for any further calculations you need. It would seem the release of gas is linear in nature in relation to increase in resistance so no need for plotting at many different resistances once you confirm that
@@stepheneyles2198 Anything that could leak through the walls of a balloon is going to walk right past that rubber O ring and not touch either side.
A few years ago I regularly used a motorized/battery powered one with replacable Batteries and lubricant cartridges in an industrial paintline for its conveyors Ball bearings. It had a push button to prefill the lubricant line at install and a dip switch or maybe a potentiometer (not sure anymore) to control the timing.
At my work we have a couple of those motorized auto-lubricators with dip switches for setting the dispensing period. Since it was the only machine with the auto-lubers, and the batteries need periodic replacing, the auto-lubers were eventually removed, and the machine is manually lubricated like everything else!
I had difficulty convincing management that it would be beneficial to install these, especially in locations that were difficult to get to that were seldom, if ever, greased. I was able to get them to do it after showing them a bearing that had to be replaced on a 2 year old conveyor that still had the paint on the grease Zerk. I added steel brake lines to keep them out of harms way.
And there is the answer...install remote grease zerks/nipples in a combined location which is easy to reach so the greae gunner can lubricate the bearings with little effort or danger.
Labels with the number of pumps on each zerk....
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq Remote greasing comes with it's own problems. The farther away you get from the greasing point, the more chance there is that the remote lines could be damaged. It's best if someone actually looks at the bearing that's being greased. When it's -20F it can be difficult to get grease to go through longer lines.
@@tiredoldmechanic1791
A manual grease gun can deliver up to 10,000 psi, these gas units will only do about 50 psi
I worked for them as supplier a long time ago when they bought Lincoln Lubrication. I have seen their complex lubrication systems with plenty of tubes all over huge machines, but never thought they do such small, and smart, lubricators.
i always suspected the batteries release the gas in these things. that was interesting to see everything up close, thanks! ALSO: they are really not that accurate, it highly depends on the altitude they are used in.
and the operating temperature
And the internal friction of the machine being lubricated. But it's just a matter of adjusting to each location.
Temperature does make a small difference, if you use the Simalube version (the originals) they are infinitely adjustable between 1 and 12 months and a slight tweak can make them very precise
SKF have a calculator that includes things like operating temperature, and a bunch of other variables to decide what setting to put the greasers onto
I rebuild cars and engines for fun as a hobby. I cannot believe, over the 100s of hours of car UA-camrs I've watched, YOU are the first person to show how to properly remove a grease gun from a zerk. My man!
Looks like an ideal fitting on many combine harvester bearings, remote mounted with a flexible pipe between the bearing and the grease unit. Set for two or three months in the UK, depending on the expected harvest length. it would seem to be the ideal size and indeed an ideal disposable maintenance solution. Just check every couple of days that the grease is getting to the bearing and replace annually.
The limitations are the 5 bar max output pressure which won’t push most greases through hoses more than a meter long
I can't believe I watched this whole video. As you say at the end, it's all summed up in a few words... but you milked 14 minutes of my life away about a device with two batteries and a resistor. Bravo... Well done, sir!
A very unusual use of 2 batteries and a resistor.
@@bigclivedotcom Yes, very unusual indeed. But when we mostly come here for electronics and your ability to break down the schematic, and you start off with "Let me show you the schematic, you're not going to be impressed" that just had me cracking up. And then I realized that wow... we all really watched a guy with a great knowledge of electronics, talk to us for 14 minutes about two batteries and a resistor. AND NOW you've also got me wasting more time replying. Damn you.
we use lots of these in our feed pelleting mill, mostly on conveyors of raw materials. These cartridges do save a lot of time and effort for maintenence, but we've found them unsuitable for high temperature areas as the grease dries out and turns into a wax like consistency.
Is the high temperature area small or large? If it's small, some plumbing to get the cartridge placed further away where it's cool could help.
We have maybe 500 grease points, and it takes around 2 hours for a person to go through them all with a pneumaticly powered grease gun.
We had cartridges like that on some machines that were bought second hand, the cartridges all discharged while the machine was in storage, creating somewhat of a mess.
We have central lubrication systems where you have one tank and plunger, and various distribution methods, plus lots and lots of plumbing. The good thing is that they don't pump alot of grease all over if the machine is at a standstill for a month or two. The disadvantage is that grease tends to dry out, and you have no real insight into whether a lubrication point is getting lubed or not.
A "Grease monkey" with a manual grease gun will be able to tell if a nipple is blocked or not. Automatics, as commonly installed, don't seem to provide the same feedback. Your feedback is when the bearing fails.
That was rather unexpected!
I thought there would be a motor or something...but batteries & nothing else...very kewl beans :D
I use these a lot at work. Good things. I use these in various different grease and oil grades. Been planning to buy the smaller ones for few places. I'd bet they have single cell inside as the diameter and the top end looks absolutely identical on all of them 🙂
How is the timing accuracy? Do they actually last for the amount of time they're supposed to?
@@ArmyCop accuracy is incredibly good. Max two weeks deviation is what I've seen. Considering the amount for period ratio, in my books that's about perfect. Also can't recall seeing them get empty earlier than set or at least it happens very seldom. Though it could be that it's because I usually install these with small amount of grease line which creates obviously some resistance always.
I used to work for an engineering supply company and sold all these from time to time. I always found them fascinating but never saw inside or knew exactly how they worked. Thank you for enlightening me Clive!
Never knew that they existed. Very interesting and incredible design .
Had a few if these at a factory I used to work at. Drove me nuts trying to figure out how it worked. Never could get ahold of an old one to take apart and was always told they worked by "magic". Finally I understand how that pesky skf automatic greaser works...thanks clive!
Shorted zinc-air battery without oxygen will produce hydrogen
(~0,3 H2 liter at normal pressure per gram of ideal zinc water mixture, because of casing, additives etc. in practice probably more like 0,1 H2 liter per gram of battery if there is sufficient amout of water)
I see here some explosion potential, maybe worth trying?
Experiments are in progress.
@@bigclivedotcomhow did the experiment go?
I'd hate to have to try it myself!
Thank you Marcin.
The amount of comments I had to go through, with nobody even asking what the gas was!
The Sidel bottle blowers at work use auto greasers with a replacement battery pack. The joys of working in a soft drinks factory. A very informative video.
Is there a particular reason to think these are zinc-air rather that some other custom chemistry?
Probably that they exist and are "standard". No need to invest the wheel if there's an off-the-shelf battery you can buy/use.
They may be custom, but the patent linked in the description seems to hint at zinc air cells exhibiting this effect. I have some cells on order to test.
I'm fairly certain that zinc air cells, at least when operating as intended, do not evolve any gas. Something odd is going on in this device.
@@bigclivedotcom The only use I've previously heard Zinc-air cells used for is hearing aids.
@@sootikins I think they charge one of the zink cells with the other zink cell. This would release the gas from zink oxide.
Elegant simplicity! In most applications the gas is a by-product of the process, here the gas IS the process. SKF are a well respected bearing manufacturer, so not altogether surprising they have lubrication solutions. What a schematic!
Propose an experiment to confirm: Solder a resistor across the batteries and stuff them into a balloon so see if/how much the balloon inflates. Would be neat to have an idea how much gas they actually produce.
I think I'll do it right now given how ridiculously simple it looks.
One caveat though is standard alkaline batteries don't have breathing or vent holes, therefore the excess pressure will fatigue the rubber gaskets and potentially make them fail, releasing battery electrolyte... Inside the balloon.
Maybe not such a big deal after all...
as said under another comment about this idea, a rubber balloon is far from a perfect sealed barrier and it leaks excessive pressure over time.
Or a vacuum sealed bag as it is airtight
The volume of that piston looks to be only a few cubic centimetres with a minimum production time of a month which is the setting for maximum production rate. Normal rubber balloons can leak hundreds of times that volume that in a few days. You're probably better off eating a bag of crisps then heat sealing the edge with a kitchen vacuum resealer as the metalised foil is much more air resistant than latex.
This is what great engineering looks like. It's simple, effective, offers a range of output speeds from a single unit, and is inexpensive to manufacture relative to other options.
but it is one time use thing which will try to pull out content if it needed or not. So while it is simple, it have a long list of cons.
We sell the SKF automatic lubricator on a regular basis, it's such a simple and cheap way to lubricate constantly and efficiently even the hardest-to-reach places
Heh heh
Amazing! I love seeing the elegant simplicity of a great design like this. Hopefully someone got a bonus for developing this one. It is brilliant.
I use to work in a steel mill as a break down electrician. These auto geezers were a new thing back then (20 years ago). I do remember an adjustable version even back then. The adjustment was made by turning a dial the full diameter of the geeezer. I wonder is it was the same tech?
Most likely. There are couple of manufacturer of similar products.
I saw auto geezers and thought "old car guys", lol...
What I like about the channel is that I have no practical reason to watch these but I'm happy that I do. Thanks for makin great content
wow, Im amazed that those tiny batteries can actually produce that amount of gas and pressure, pretty crazy! The chemical one was also very interesting
From what I can see, the waste product of the zinc+air+elctrolyte reaction is water, which can then react corrosively with the zinc, releasing Hydrogen.
So in effect, gradually replacing the O2 in the plunger with H2.
I love when you don't preopen stuff so you are surprised as me.
At the large enlargement photo at 13:37 (giggity) one can see that the resistive layer has been calibrated with a laser burning off some of the black layer. They have cut the layer from the center out (the little brighter spikes). On the left side there is one cut that is clearly shorter. This way I suspect the manufacturer can account for the uneven thickness of the resistive layer.
In the fabrication shop I used to work at, it usually took 2 guys about 4 hours to grease 12 machines, twice a year. So that's about $50 x 4 hours x 2 per year, or about $400. Compare that to $37 per unit x 12 or about $444, assuming each machine needs only one unit. The older machines often needed grease in multiple locations.
You dont factor cost of grease and equipment for 2 guys to grease those 12 machines)
Side benefit - those 2 folks will be doing other things during those 4 hours!
These are single point only lubricators
1 unit to replace 1 grease nipple
We use a low tech device for giving intravenous antibiotics. It uses a standard size syringe in a spring loaded device. The infusion rate is determined by a restriction in the tubing that connects to the iv in your arm. It can push 30 mls in anything from 15 minutes to 1 week, depending on the tube used.
Springfusor.
Good stuff! I've often seen these empty canisters discarded by the side of the railway and wondered what they were. I'd assume they are used for lubricating points. You do also get the huge grease pots that are activated by trains as they roll over them and the wheels hit a little plunger.
Aren't they for anti-squeal use in curves? I thunk the points have other lubrication means..
@@jeremywilliams5107 the big yellow ones are yes. I'm going to assume that these ones go inside the point motors.
The RR I work for uses them to lubricate external locking mechanism for point machines. They mostly work well but in some locations the vibration from trains snaps them off.
@@hannahranga yeah can't imagine the plastic does well under UV light exposure. Probably goes very brittle
Genius! I love things like this where clearly, the designer has a truly deep knowledge of their topic, or can at least use Google ;). Now we need the video on the chemistry please Clive.
Huh. Do zinc-air batteries not need fresh air as they run? Or is there enough in the chamber at the start of the run? Or enough diffuses through the plastic housing?
It appears to be the process of blocking air that may make them generate hydrogen gas.
I think what's going on is there's not enough oxygen, so the reaction is ripping the O off the water in the electrolyte, releasing H2.
We have these, but larger in the trucking industry. There's a pot of about half a gallon of grease affixed to the truck chassis, lines to every non rotary grease fitting. We don't measure in months, but hours. I had mine set for grease every 6 hours, which is excellent in winter for pushing water out of steering joints and suspension bushings. All run by a small electric motor and a small piston pump. You can even buy a kit to auto-grease the 5th wheel. Very handy indeed.
its begging for a 1 month timelapse! are you up for it?👍👍👍
I had this unit sitting here slowly extruding it's schmoo like a Mr Whippy ice cream.
Thanks BigClive. I wanted to see a teardown of SKF System 24 since 2015. Finally now I got the genius engineering behind it.
Ah yes Mr. Clive. At last something I know a bit about. I do know its limitations. If you chose this and do away with the Greaser employee then bear in mind. It lets you down frequently in the real world especially by melting its small plastic thread if it fails to deliver the correct quantity. It is a dark art setting them. If it is not linked to feed back tech then buyer beware. I have seen these melted and lying on the ground still squirting their grease while the machine slowly kills itself. Vibration and a term describing a ''bearing wanting a drink'' and cracking under strong sunlight are some of its enemy's. Nice idea. But if you value your machine be careful.
Simple tech so very little to go wrong .. ideal for environment where you dont want to be accessing it often.. Genius
I've never thought about it but if you shorted the cell would the rate of gas production cause an explosion? (Gets containment dish ready)
I doubt it would generate it that fast.
@@bigclivedotcom I think this would be worth trying, although you're right, the explosion containment pie dish shouldn't be necessary. If the gas output is linear with load, then a 1 ohm load should get the device to shoot its wad (a grease cup's worth of gas) in about 17 minutes. Maybe wire it up to a low resistance load and drop it into some distilled water to see the bubbles.
Iirc correctly they're actually atex rated. I could be wrong, but that's what gotten into my head.. 🤔
@@jothain I mean if you already got an explosive atmosphere, a little more hydrogen isn't going to hurt...
The ones with a bulb on the top to display when theyre empty are a god send for things up a height
Anne summers is watching with interest lol
Wymark have been producing their Greasomatic for over 50 years. They use a chemical gas generator based on metal dissolving in acid (I think) generating hydrogen, to force the grease out. The little capsule that contains the metal is programmed before it's release, by turning an external knob which opens or closes an orifice that allows the acid into the casule. Greasomatics are totally sealed. They have nice cut away diagrams on their website.
I almost bought one of those. I thought it might have been a potentiometer being set on a module before being released.
I'm pretty sure it's not a conventional Zn-air cell here. In the absence of O2, those cells don't do anything, far less generate substantial amounts of gas. My guess is it's a Zn-air type cell with some added magic ingredient such that when the battery is shorted (or partially so) it generates enough oxygen to activate the cell, and the charge is then used to liberate gas from some other substance (e.g. maybe Al/HCl which generates hydrogen?)
See the description.
Man, I love solid and smart engineering
12:30 - Big Clive mistakenly reveals his UA-cam income: 2.65k per month!
He is paid in Ohms.
Very simple and therefore very sophisticated. I love finding out about this kind of engineering.
Imagine how long it would have taken to develop that. Wow. 👍
I'd guess the ones that 'drop in' the pill into the liquid gave them the idea, as it's kind-of a 'battery'
@@CubbyTech yeah and ones with spring that are way harder to control precisely.
The basis of this design is not the grease pump but the Stauffer bushing. Filled with grease, the mechanic would occasionally go by and give the screw-on cover a twist to supply a helping of grease to the bearing.
I used a version of this with a gear motor that can be controlled digitally. (Not for lubrication, but for dispersal of a contaminant in a test configuration)
Wtf happened to your hand?
The Skf model I have used for 10 years lubricates bearings excellently. works very well.
Sometimes getting someone gas-powered from England is often rubbish rarely working.
As in the say KISS Keep It Simple Stupid.
This makes sure it is repeatable every time
I like the spring one best. No over engineering with goofy gasses and seals, just a clear tube with a spring. You can see how much is left, and it's refillable!
The simplicity is stunning. I'm in awe. Thank you Clive.
the gas output ought to be quite linear as well if it's being used to regularly grease something
There is beauty in the pure simplicity of this device.
This is one of the things where you can imagine some person thinking "how can I make this better?," Then all of a sudden a light bulb turns on in their mind.
This is definitely a true case of thinking outside the box. Kudos to the designer.
Kudos to the chemist who cooked that engineer's LSD.
wow simple thinking and sophisticated design. since they are not replacing all the grease at one time but only keeping the bearing supplied they can work at low pressure and low flow-rate. that is really deep analysis
After the you showed all "automatic" system with coils, I was 100% sure this would just be a coil with adjustable pretension. So glad I was wrong. This system is so simple, must be so cheap to manucfature. Insane
Nice! "Sophisticated" does not automatically require exotic or complex execution. Thanks for this, Clive.
Of all the ones we've used at the Tire Plant, the electro-lubers from TIMKEN are leaps and bounds more advanced. The TIMKIN use a DC motor to slowly advance the grease.
6:57 This thing doesn't "replace" people. Many mechanisms need a fairly accurate amount of lubrication to work, a person may forget to lubricate it or lubricate too much. Usually, mechanisms that require regular lubrication are serviced regularly, and such devices eliminate the need to measure the exact amount of lubrication and increase the intervals between maintenance.
I'm a bit confused. You stated it doesn't replace people and then go on to explain (correctly, it seems) in what wonderful ways it replaces people.
I have something similar to the simplest one on my trailer bearings. The spring and piston push the grease straight into the bearing, and the center of the top is where you refill.
There is also a motor driven unit that's battery powered off 2 x AA batteries and designed to be screwed onto a replacement cartridge. Drives a plunger to firce tge grease out and programmable in overall time , g/shot or g/month.
Fascinating devices.
These have been around for some time, i used to go to factories and replace them, but never knew quite how they worked, Great breakdown Clive, just goes to show how tech has improved in the factories, which is where all the tech advances happen ;) This does not come purely from a lab or university, but engineers needing to fix a siple problem like auto lubrication. Trucks use compressed air from the brake system and a large escarpment wheel, every 10 goes on the brakes and the wheel bearings etc get a dose of grease. But truckers who hit the brake a lot will get excess grease coming out into the brake drum (squeezing past the seal) which means no more brakes but sometimes they even catch fire!. Note to truckers; brake for no-one :D