Pneumatic air cyl lube 1

[nod]

Hello,
Was wondering if anyone has ran across a good spray lubricant/grease that could be sprayed in the pneumatic lines to coat the cyl./ valve seals. What happened was some one put oil in some air lines and flushed out the factory lube. Took the valves ans cylinders apart, every thing looked ok. Re lubed all the seals with a grease in house. Would like to find a good spray , if made to spray on each side of the cylinder if need be.

Thanks Nod

 

[PSE]

Check with the original manufacturer if possible. You may be able to find out what the original lubricant was. I'd be a little careful about experimenting with various other lubricants as they could (depending upon type) attack and degrade the seal itself. You would want to find out what the seal material is prior to looking at compatible lubricants.

Regards

 

[MikeMilburn]

In our application we use an air tool oil, granted the cylinders aren't cycling that much (a tailgate latch cylinder)but we haven't had much problems.
I don't doubt that some of the units get regular ole engine oil when they're in an outside shop...Mike

 

[Drazen]

PSE is completelly right.

More concretely, syntetic lubricant will generally attack common seal rubber (NBR). If you can't find data about seal material, use of mineral oil will avoid risk in most of usual conditions.

I am not sure about spray. For pneumatic lines you can use oil either specified as "air line" or "circulation/general purpuse" oil, depending on maker. Viscosity grade should be ISO VG 32 for medium duty in-plant installation; for lighter duty you can use VG 10 or VG 15 (that should be suficciant for most purposes: we use VG 10 for mould locking cylinders on high-speed bottle blowing machines, recommended by manufacturer of the machine).

Back to spray matter, manufacturers often offer chain spray, but it has VG 150 and is not appropriate choice for this (except for initial seal installation). The same with grease in spray. Mist lubricator installed in supply line using mentioned oils should be "normal" solution for lubrication during operation.

 

[nod]

Thanks guys for your responses, as for adding oil I can add an oiler on each machine. However I was trying to avoid doing that since the cylinders all come with factory lube. I didn't want to introduce oil in the plant, figuring someone will think if its on one machine it's ok to put some in the next and so on. then I would have to add oilers to all machines. This would be an added cost and something we would have to continue doing. Kind of defeats the purpose of purchasing pre lubed cylinders. IfAny more ideals please let me know.

Thanks Nod

 

[automatic2]

use a mist type lubricator with a light pnuematic oil. Oils for screw or vane compressors work great. The closer you mount to the actuator, the less oil you can deliver without problem. Greases are not a good choice for pnuematics. 'O' rings can take a small amount of vasiline on assembly. Cast rings need to be oil submerged prior to assembly. Keep your system closed. Wipe access ports before adding oil. A preventive maintenance program will determine the ongoing lubrication requirements of each device.

 

[Drazen]

Well, Mr. Nod I din't find cylinders with "factory lube" so far.
I am pretty sure that lube you noticed is simply remained after assembly and is not intended to be solution for permanent run. Manufacturers (which is yours?) clearly specify is the cilinder adequate for dry run or not. If it is (most standard ones from Bosch or Festo are) you don't have to care about it. If it isn't, you have to introduce oil because grease is simply not the solution for pneumatic equipment (of course maybe that is something new I don't know about, but I din't notice it in any available edition of documentation or literature. It is only a common recommended practice to lighly grease the seal during installation, but you have to take care of grease type and seal material as mentioned in previous post.)

Good luck!

 

[nod]

Thanks guys for all the info, most of it will be very useful, I will pass it on to my guys.

Thanks again
Nod