56%

of premature bearing failures are caused by contamination and poor lubrication

More than half of your bearing damage is therefore a lubrication problem, not a bearing problem. In an environment that is dirty by definition, that share is not an outlier but the starting point.

up to 33%

less lubricant consumption

By switching from manual to automatic lubrication. Less grease, precisely dosed — and therefore also less grease ending up on the belt, in the material stream or on the sorting hall floor.

15–20 min

per machine per maintenance cycle

That’s how long correct manual lubrication takes. Automation gives that time back to your technicians and your planning — on a site where the inflow never stops, that’s not a luxury.

40–60%

of your maintenance costs stem from poor lubrication

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

Level 1 · Basic

Manual lubrication

The right tools for points you deliberately keep manual

• SKF Lincoln 1882-E — 20 V Li-ion battery grease gun with two-speed gearing: high gear for volume, low gear for pressures up to 700 bar. Work light and status LEDs for loss of prime, empty cartridge or a blocked nipple
• 1142 / 1151 / 1035 — manual grease guns, also available with flexible hose (1077600H) or as a complete set
• LAGM 1000E grease meter — measures the actual amount of grease delivered per point; compatible with all SKF grease guns and suitable for most NLGI 0–3 greases

Strengths: low investment, no installation complexity, few components. Defensible on secondary equipment with limited operating hours and easily accessible points — a tensioning station at eye level, an outdoor discharge belt.

Limitations: in a processing hall, manual lubrication almost always means the line has to stop. You cannot enter a sorting line while it’s running, and the lubrication points of a shredder rotor, a screen drum or a baler plunger sit behind a guard that may only open after a full lockout procedure. Even without the statistics, every maintenance manager knows what happens then — the hardest point to reach is the first one skipped, and that’s usually exactly the point that’s critical.

Level 2 · Consolidation

Semi-automatic lubrication

Bringing fifteen points behind a guard down to one nipple in front of it

• SSV — progressive divider block, distributes grease from a single supply point to multiple outlet points in a fixed, positive sequence
• SSVD — adjustable progressive divider block, for when points require different quantities from one another — for example a heavily loaded rotor bearing next to a lighter guide roller
• VPK — sectional progressive divider block for larger systems or ones spread across the installation
• Armoured, canvas, polyamide, steel lines — custom-made in length and connection, with optional hose protection and customer-specific marking, so a technician on a sorting platform never has to guess which line goes where

What it delivers: instead of opening a guard, locking out a line and searching for fifteen separate points, your technician greases one central nipple in a safe, accessible location outside the danger zone. The distribution is mechanical and positive: if one outlet blocks, the entire block stops — so a fault becomes visible instead of going unnoticed until the bearing fails. The cycle indicator pin on the primary divider block gives you a visual confirmation that the system is working.

Ideal for: older sorting and shredding installations you don’t yet want to fully automate, mobile and relocatable units you move between sites, and all those points that are only accessible with a ladder, a scissor lift, or a fully shut down and locked-out line.

Level 3 · Continuous · Most popular in recycling and waste processing

Fully automatic lubrication

Lubricating while the shredder is running and the belt is full

• CLP / PLP / P203 / KFG — electrically driven grease pumps that, depending on line length, serve up to 150 lubrication points; up to three pumping elements, various reservoir types, optional control board and level monitoring
• AECP — automatic electric cartridge pump that works with standard 420 ml grease cartridges: refilling works just like a grease gun, no special tools needed. Compact, rugged and specifically designed to be retrofitted — on a second-hand sorting unit or a rented shredder, this is often the fastest step forward
• P 205 / P 215 / ZPU — multi-line or dual-line systems for large stations with high consumption, available in ATEX versions
• BPH — heavy-duty, hydraulically driven drum pump, the logical choice for refilling handling cranes and loaders

Why this matters so much in waste processing:

• Lubrication takes place while the installation is running — exactly when the bearing needs the lubricating film, not when the maintenance window allows it
• The constant grease flow actively pushes dust, fibres and moisture out, instead of pressing them in during a manual round
• The dosing is fixed, so both under- and over-greasing disappear — and with it the grease that would otherwise end up on the belt and in your material stream via an over-greased bearing
• Your technicians no longer need to go behind guards, along sorting platforms or under belt routes for routine lubrication

ATEX where it’s required: in zones with combustible dust — RDF production, wood processing, paper and film dust, dryers — SKF supplies components that meet the ATEX directive, for explosion group IIC/IIIC and protection level Gb/Db, with grease components rated up to 400 bar.

Level 4 · Data

Connected lubrication (SKF eLube / IoT)

See what every pump is doing without entering the hall

• CLP / PLP Smart / P253 Smart — connected grease/oil pumps with three operating modes: time-controlled, counter-controlled and progressive cycle-controlled
• Datalog controller — system controller with data logging, cab-based operation and a Bluetooth connection to the eLube app; compact enough to fit in a cab and suitable for proving the correct procedures were followed on rented, leased or pooled equipment
• SKF eLube app — reads fill level, operating mode and pump status wirelessly, without stopping the installation or physically accessing the pump

What you can do with it:

• Spot a blocked line or a nearly empty reservoir within minutes instead of at the next round — and step in before the bearing suffers damage
• Configure and share pump settings with a colleague, a subcontractor or your service partner
• Keep a log of cycles, consumption and faults, with automatically saved reports

Why this is relevant in a processing company: your sorting hall is not a place you casually walk into just to read a fill level. There’s dust, there’s noise, there’s moving equipment, and there are guards that can’t simply be opened. Every check you can do from a tablet in the office instead of on site is one less entry and one less risk moment. Work across multiple sites, a transfer station and a processing centre, or with relocatable units on location per project, and that argument only gets stronger: physically going to check whether a pump still has grease is the most expensive form of monitoring there is.

Pre-crushers, shredders and granulators

Why it’s critical: this is the machine your entire process stands or falls on, and at the same time the machine with the most unpredictable load profile on the site. Every load delivers a shock load that the rotor bearings absorb directly, while a shredder rotor turns slowly under very high load — the exact situation where a bearing never builds up a proper hydrodynamic lubricating film.

Critical components: rotor and main shaft bearings, drive bearings and coupling, gearbox and belt-tensioning station, counter-blade and cutter-rotor bearings, the hydraulic pusher and feed mechanism, hinge points of the flap covers.

Indicative number of lubrication points: 12 – 40 points per shredder or granulator line, increasing with the feed table, discharge belt and drive station. (To be validated during the installation scan.)

Typical setup: a progressive system with a CLP or P203 pump and SSV/SSVD divider blocks, with the pump on a low-vibration part of the frame and flexible high-pressure hoses to the moving parts. For a heavier-duty machine or several machines in one hall, a P 215 multi-line pump or a dual-line system with a ZPU pump comes into play. Grease: LGEV 2 or LGEM 2 for the slow-turning, heavily loaded rotor bearings, LGHB 2 where temperature and water ingress meet, and LGEP 2 for the classic EP points.

Sorting lines: conveyor belts, trommel screens and separators

Why it’s critical: the sorting line is the longest, most spread-out and most overlooked part of your installation. In a sorting hall, something else is added to that: fibres. Film, textile, rope and paper dust wrap themselves around shafts and then pull the grease out of the bearing. With trommel screens, constant vibration and imbalance add to that.

Critical components: drive and return drum bearings, tensioning drums and tensioning stations, carrier and return idler stations, the bearings and drive of the trommel screen, the unbalance drive and rocker-shaft bearings of ballistic separators.

Indicative number of lubrication points: 40 – 250+ per sorting line, depending on the number of belt segments, screens and separation stages. (To be validated during the installation scan.)

Typical setup: for a single belt segment, a progressive system with a P203 pump and SSV/VPK divider blocks. For a complete sorting line under one roof: a dual-line system with a ZPU pump, or a sectional design with a central drum pump and EDL1 booster pumps per line section. Where piping over a long belt bridge or to a vibrating screen housing is impractical: TLSD single-point lubricators. Grease: LGWA 2 for high loads in wet conditions, LGWM 1 where good pumpability over long lines and at low temperature matters, and LGHB 2 where water and leachate are structurally present.

Balers, compactors and heavy conveyor chains

Why it’s critical: a baler or compactor has an extremely cyclical load profile: build up high pressure, ram through, retract, repeat. On compactors at a transfer station, leachate is added to that: moisture from the waste stream runs to the lowest (and hardest to reach) points of the machine. For heavy compost or drag chains, SKF also states that brush systems are unsuitable and grease injection is often the only solution.

Critical components: plunger and ram guides, main bearings and connecting-rod bearings of the press drive, hinge points of the pre-press and lid mechanisms, and for chain conveying, the chain links themselves, sprockets and head and tail shaft bearings.

Indicative number of lubrication points: 20 – 70 per press or compactor unit, and 10 – 40 per heavy chain run. (To be validated during the installation scan.)

Typical setup: a progressive system with a CLP or P203 pump and SSV/SSVD blocks for the bearing and hinge points, positioned so the divider blocks stay above the leachate level. For heavy chains: GIS-B or GIS-C compressed-air-driven grease injection systems that deliver grease directly into the chain hinge. Grease: LGHB 2 where high load, temperature and water ingress meet, and LGEM 2 on the slowest, most heavily loaded hinge points.

Collection and handling equipment: refuse trucks, wheel loaders and handling cranes

Why it’s critical: a collection vehicle makes hundreds of stops a day and, besides a heavily loaded chassis, has a body with a compaction cycle that hinges with every emptying. Let dirt and grit work their way in here, and an abrasive paste forms in the bearing. On a wheel loader in the bunker hall, rapid direction changes and heavy, varying loads add to that. And manually lubricating the slew ring of a handling crane can take up to half an hour per round and carries serious safety risks.

Critical components: kingpins, tie-rod ends, spring-leaf bolts, brake cams and the ram-guide slides, plate and slide hinges of the body. On the handling crane: the slew ring and slewing gear, boom hinges and the rotator.

Indicative number of lubrication points: 25 – 60 points per collection vehicle including the body, 23 – 50 per wheel loader and 20 – 45 per handling crane. (To be validated during the installation scan.)

Typical setup: a progressive system with a CLP or P203 pump. On a collection vehicle, the pump sits on the chassis frame; the body can be lubricated independently or as part of the same circuit. Refilling is done with a BPH hydraulically driven drum pump. To monitor the fleet remotely, choose CLP Smart or P253 Smart with the Datalog controller. Grease: LGWM 2 for heavy off-road applications in wet conditions, LGWA 2 for heavily loaded wheel bearings, and LGGB 2 or LGTE 2 for environmentally sensitive applications.