Lubrication that keeps your ship at sea — without a yard visit

An average seagoing vessel has more than a hundred lubrication points, spread from the engine room to the top of the deck crane. Salt, moisture, vibration and a small crew make the manual lubrication round one of the heaviest and most dangerous tasks on board. SKF centralized lubrication systems dose automatically, even while operating, and keep bearings, slew rings and gears protected between two dockings. Euroquip designs, installs and maintains them — on board, at the yard or in the port.

Official SKF partner · Class-approved and ATEX versions on request · EAL lubricants for waterside applications · Installation during a yard or port stop · Service across the full Benelux

SKF Lincoln smeersystemen om stilstand te voorkomen in de scheepvaart en maritieme sector

56%

of premature bearing failures are caused by contamination and inadequate lubrication

More than half of your bearing damage is therefore a lubrication problem, not a bearing problem. On board, where moisture and salt are permanently present, that share is no abstraction.

up to 33%

less lubricant consumption

By switching from manual to automatic lubrication. Less grease to bunker on board, precisely dosed, at the right moment.

15–20 min

per machine per maintenance cycle

That’s how much time correct manual lubrication costs. Automation gives that time back to a crew that’s already stretched thin for the sailing schedule.

40–60%

of your maintenance costs stem from inadequate lubrication

While lubricants themselves account for only 2 to 3% of your operating costs. The ratio between effort and impact is rarely this skewed.

Why shipping companies, yards and port operators across the Benelux work with Euroquip

  • ✅
    Official SKF partner — direct access to the full SKF and SKF Lincoln range, technical support and warranty terms. Class-approved and ATEX- or IECEx-certified versions are available on request.
  • ✅
    Certified installation of lubrication systems — from system design and corrosion-resistant execution to piping, commissioning and training your crew.
  • ✅
    We know the conditions on board — salt spray, vibration, limited crew, long sailing periods without a yard visit, and the requirement that the equipment simply works when the pilot steps aboard.
  • ✅
    Advice and maintenance on site — periodic inspection of your lubrication system, refilling, adjustment and fault follow-up through a single point of contact, in port or at the yard.
  • ✅
    Installation within your stop window — we plan around your sailing schedule and docking plan, not the other way around.

Frequently asked questions

According to the analysis SKF relies on for the maritime sector, more than a third of all shipping incidents between 2009 and 2018 resulted from machinery failures — and according to the same source, incidents involving machinery damage rose by over 30% between 2008 and 2018. On one specific task, the difference is even measurable in meters: a crew member lubricates an average of half a meter of steel wire rope by hand per minute, an automatic wire rope lubricator covers over 30 meters in that same minute.

Sources: SKF publications on lubrication solutions for the maritime and offshore sector.
Your results depend on vessel type, number of lubrication points, sailing profile and the current lubrication practice on board — we map that out during an on-board scan.

Four levels of lubrication:
where does your ship stand today?

Not every lubrication point on board deserves the same level. A fitting in the engine room that someone passes weekly calls for something different than a top-sheave bearing fifteen meters up. SKF builds the four levels modularly, so you can expand per section of the ship. Euroquip determines with you which level pays off fastest per piece of equipment.

Level 1 · Basic

Manual lubrication

The right tool for points you deliberately keep manual

  • SKF Lincoln 1882-E — 20V Li-ion cordless grease gun, for faster and more consistently dosed lubrication rounds on deck and in the engine room.
  • 1134 / 1142 / 1154 — pistol-grip, lever and double-lever grease guns.
  • LAGN 120 — grease fitting kit with 120 conical fittings, for standardizing and replacing corroded fittings.

Strong in: low investment, direct control, suited to easily accessible points in the engine room and to vessels with frequent yard visits.

Limits: dosing depends on whoever does the round. Too much grease means loss over the side (contamination of the surrounding water); too little lets the bearing run dry. And then there’s accessibility: a lubrication round on a deck crane or davit means climbing, often at sea, often with a swell.

Level 2 · Consolidation

Semi-automatic lubrication

Bringing multiple lubrication points together into one

  • SSV / SSVD — (adjustable) progressive divider blocks.
  • Armored, canvas, polyamide, steel tubing — custom-made for the layout of your equipment.
  • TLSD and LAGD single-point lubricators — automatic per point, where a pipe run isn’t feasible.

What it delivers: instead of hunting for and operating fifteen points on a winch separately — of which a few are always skipped in practice — your engineer lubricates one central point in a safe, accessible spot. Distribution happens mechanically and forcibly: if one outlet blocks, the whole block stops.

Ideal for: equipment at height, points only reachable while the ship is stationary, and vessels where you want the lubrication round to be safer and complete without going fully automatic.

Level 3 · Continuous · Most chosen on deck equipment

Fully automatic lubrication

The right lubricant in the right amount, with no one needing to go on deck

  • CLP / PLP / P203 — electrically driven grease pumps for progressive systems.
  • P215 — electrically driven multi-line pump, the classic choice for winches, steering gear and rudder stock.
  • ZPU / Dual-line system — high-volume pump with which one pump unit serves all the lubrication points of a crane or large installation.
  • Lubrication pinion & spray lubrication — for open gearing on slew rings, rack gears and wire ropes. Executed in stainless steel.

Why this matters in the maritime sector:

  • Lubrication happens while the equipment is running — exactly when the bearing needs it.
  • Dosing is fixed, so less grease is lost overboard and less running dry.
  • Your crew no longer needs to go up the crane mast for routine lubrication.
  • For zones with explosion risk, explosion-protected pump units and ATEX-certified versions are available.

Level 4 · Data

Connected lubrication (SKF eLube / IoT)

See what your lubrication system is doing, without going on deck

  • CLP / PLP Smart / P253 Smart — connected pumps with three operating modes (time-based, counter-based, progressive cycle-based).
  • SKF eLube app — connects via Bluetooth to the eLube products in range.

What you do with it:

  • Read fill level and operating status without stopping or entering the equipment.
  • Spot a blockage or empty reservoir instead of at the next round — or the next failure.
  • Generate a timestamped log of all faults and events.

Why this is relevant on board: a ship is at sea for weeks without the shore organization seeing anything. The lubrication system’s log shows that lubrication happened, when and with what dose. For a superintendent following up on four vessels, that’s the difference between assuming and proving — at a class survey, in a damage file, or at handover between crews.

ManualSemi-automaticFully automaticConnected
Lubricates during operationriskylimitedyesyes
Constant dosingnopartlyyesyes
Risk of grease loss overboardhighmoderatelowlow
Labor time per cycle15–20 min/machinesignificantly reducedvirtually nonevirtually none
Working at height / over the siderequiredlimitedalmost neveralmost never
Fault detectiononly once damage occursmechanically visiblevia systemreal-time + alarm
Provable for surveypaper logbookpaper logbooksystem-drivendigital logbook

Want to know what your fleet loses every year to lubrication points that don’t get lubricated?

Give us the vessel type, the number of pieces of equipment and your current lubrication frequency. We’ll convert man-hours, grease consumption and avoidable downtime into an annual figure per ship — and set that against the investment in automatic lubrication.

No obligations. Response within two working days.

Lubrication solutions per piece of equipment on board and in port

Every piece of equipment on board has its own requirements: salt spray, shock loads, slow-turning heavily loaded bearings, or all three at once. Below are four applications Euroquip is asked about most often, with the critical components and the matching SKF solution.

Deck equipment: winches, windlass and deck crane


Why critical: deck equipment sits permanently in salt spray. Without a good understanding of lubrication needs, the crew applies grease in the wrong place, or points get skipped. On deck cranes there’s also the safety risk of climbing at sea. Poor lubrication can lead to damage to the slew ring and, in extreme cases, the crane breaking off.

Critical components: slew ring and open gearing, boom and top-sheave bearings, winch drums and gearboxes, windlass, wire ropes.

Indicative number of lubrication points: 25 – 90 per deck crane and 15 – 50 per winch station (To be validated during the on-board scan).

Typical setup: multi-line or progressive system with a P215 or ZPU pump. A lubrication pinion distributes grease over the slew ring’s open gearing. For wire ropes, a wire rope lubricator clamps around the rope and forces the grease deep in, after pretreatment by a groove cleaner.

Steering gear, hatch covers and davits


Why critical: steering gear and the rudder stock endure vibration and heavy load and are hard to reach. Davits fall under SOLAS: lifeboats must be deployable at all times. A corroded hoisting wire is a direct safety risk.

Critical components: rudder stock bearing, steering gear cylinders, hatch covers (hinges/rollers), davit arms, hoisting wires of life-saving equipment.

Indicative number of lubrication points: 10 – 40 for the steering gear and 20 – 60 for hatch covers and davits (To be validated during the on-board scan).

Typical setup: multi-line grease lubrication system. Impeller pumps handle heavy grease (NLGI 2) effortlessly, even at near-freezing temperatures. For davits at height: TLSD or LAGD single-point lubricators, plus an automatic wire rope lubricator for the hoisting wires.

Dredging installations and offshore lifting and jacking equipment


Why critical: these are slow-turning, heavily loaded and permanently wet applications where standard grease fails. On jacking systems, jacking up takes hours and every tooth has to be greased by hand. That costs an enormous amount of time in an unsafe environment.

Critical components: slew rings, swivel bearings, cutter head bearings, drive pinions and rack gears of jacking systems, cable sheaves.

Indicative number of lubrication points: 40 – 150 per installation (To be validated during the on-board scan).

Typical setup: multi-line or progressive system. For rack gears of jacking systems, a stainless-steel grease spray system is used with electrically monitored spray nozzles and an adjustable spray pattern up to 150 mm. Grease: LGEM 2 or LGHB 2, or LGGB 2 above the waterline.

Port cranes, ship unloaders and RoRo ramps


Why critical: if the shore installation stops, the ship stops, and berth time is the most expensive time in the logistics chain. Ship unloaders with >100 scattered lubrication points almost always result in an incomplete manual round.

Critical components: travel wheels, slew rings, boom bearings, hoisting winches, hydraulic cylinders and hinges of RoRo ramps.

Indicative number of lubrication points: 60 – 150+ per crane and 10 – 30 per ramp or flap door (To be validated during the on-board scan).

Typical setup: dual-line system with a ZPU pump for the large units; progressive system with CLP Smart or P253 Smart for the ramps. This is exactly where a connected variant pays off most, with app notifications going straight to the shore technician.

Do you also work with large oil systems?

Do you use large volumes of oil for hydraulics, gearboxes, or circulation in your processes? Avoid unnecessary oil changes and reuse your industrial oil indefinitely, without any loss of quality.

Discover SKF RecondOil

Lubricants and diagnostic tools for shipping and offshore

A lubrication system is only as good as the lubricant running through it. On board, that lubricant must do three things at once: carry high loads, resist salt water and — wherever it can come into contact with the surrounding water — meet environmental requirements. The choices below cover most of your plan.

SKF LGGB 2 — biodegradable grease (EAL)

LGGB 2 is an Environmentally Acceptable Lubricant (EAL), meaning that besides being biodegradable, it also meets EPA minimum requirements for toxicity and bio-accumulation.

Where it excels: at any point where grease can end up in the surrounding water (deck equipment, davits, cylinder eyes above the waterline). Note: biodegradable doesn’t mean “unlimited discharge”, but it does minimize environmental risk.

Properties: −40 to +90 °C, excellent corrosion inhibition (even in 0.5% NaCl salt water tests).

SKF LGWA 2 — high load and wide temperature range

Premium mineral-oil grease with EP properties (−30 to +140 °C, with brief peaks up to 220 °C).

Where it excels: the standard grease for winches and cranes where requirements exceed the range of a universal grease. It provides effective lubrication in wet conditions and is very well resistant to water washout.

Alternative: SKF LGWM 2 (for widely varying conditions) with extremely strong protection against “false brinelling” — ideal for equipment that stands idle for long periods while the ship sails and vibrates.

SKF LGHB 2 and LGEM 2 — the slowest and most heavily loaded points

LGHB 2: high-viscosity grease with a calcium sulfonate complex, designed for extreme loads, very high water penetration resistance and peaks up to 200 °C. Very good pumpability in centralized systems with longer pipe runs.

LGEM 2: high-viscosity grease with solid lubricants. The absolute choice for slow-turning, heavily loaded bearings where an ordinary lubricating film struggles (slew rings, swivel bearings, boom hinges). A grease that washes out leaves the bearing exposed to salt water. In these applications, water resistance is the main reason for the choice.

Diagnostic and dosing tools

SKF TLSD / LAGD single-point lubricators: ideal for confined spaces or hazardous locations. The wired TLSD only lubricates while the equipment is running and can be connected to the PLC.

Wire rope lubricator & groove cleaner: the groove cleaner removes hardened grease. The lubricator clamps around the rope and forces fresh grease deep into the core.

SKF eLube app: wireless system diagnostics via smartphone. Generating timestamped logs is indispensable at handover between two crews or for a superintendent.

Get your ship or terminal to the right lubrication level

Start with one piece of equipment. We map the lubrication points, calculate what the current approach costs you annually in man-hours, grease and avoidable downtime, and propose the level that pays for itself fastest.

Do you also work with large oil systems on board — hydraulics, gearboxes, circulation oil? Then also check out SKF RecondOil for circular oil use.

Response within two working days · On-board or terminal scan · Service area: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg

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