This video is about this automatic lubricator, it's basically speaking an electronic. It kind of it clashes electronic, but it's very simple: it's a electronic device that will gradually push the grease in this container out through this port and into the grease inlet port of our bearing and a factory machine, and the clever thing about it is uh by Default it comes set to off. This is probably just as well, but you can set it to the time that you want the grease to be dispensed over so say, for instance, if it's a a very high usage machine, you can set it to one and that will dispense all degrees over the Course of one month, if, however, it's very low use, you can set it to 12 or all the numbers in between and it will gradually dispense the grease over a year and that can save a lot of uh work. So let's turn that back off, it's not going to splunge the grease everywhere.

It is by the time i've opened it because we are going to open it. So traditionally, in the factory equipment, you'd have a grease gun and some would go around. They'd push this uh, flexible or solid tube onto a grease, nipple and then they'd sort of basically pump crease in the regular basis. The first level of automation is this very, very simple: spring-loaded one, the spring-loaded one has a chamber with a programmable grease.

Dispensing speed set by the viscosity of the grease and the spring you use and inside is a plunger that rides up and down inside here, and it's pushed down by that spring. That's got a large o-ring in the side and the way you use these well. Let me put it back together, it's much easier to put back together with a weak spring. This thread is just absolutely nightmare to get started, especially under the power of a spring.

It's not a fun thing, but once you've actually set it up, that's it. But the idea is you screw this permanently onto the grease. Nipple inlet and you've got another grease sniff on the side. Here you connect your grease gun onto it and you pump it up and to fill that cavity with grease and push that plunger up to about this line.

Here you don't go too far, because a grease gun can actually put a lot of force in and they've got specific warnings saying if you do it too far, it'll burst the top off and then there's a big spring to assist in at that flying projectile. But once you've done that you take the grease gun off and note that you don't just pull grease guns off you tilt it over to the side and twist to actually get it off. It's easiest way, just in case anybody's ever had any problem doing that, and this grease nipple is basically a one-way valve. You cover up again and now over a period of time, uh, based on how easy it is to force the grease in the viscosity of the grease and the actual spring.

It will gradually push the grease into the unit and once the you see that down flush with this, then you know it's time to pump up again pump it up next version, i'm going to put the grease gun out of the way here. Next version is the chemical version which is interesting. This has a it's basically, a syringe full of grease and you get to choose with these little chemical tablets the release times so say, for instance, this is one month. This is three months, and this is 12 months.

I think there's supposed to be a six month option and what happens with this is there's a little set of jaws. This is where i'm going to completely ruin it by actually fingering the pill, but if i squeeze these jaws at the side, let's zoom down this, if i squeeze these jaws at the side, it will release the little pill, and this is a specially formulated. Material also seems to have a metallic coating outside. I wonder if it's designed to do initial burst, but the idea is that uh, when you put this in there's liquid in here and i'll shake it, so you can hear it hear the liquid.

So there is a liquid in here and when you put this in there's a seal at the bottom that gets broken as this gets pushed in this little nip here presumably puts pressure on that, and it does three things. It breaks that seal as it goes in it drops the pill into the liquid and then this seal here will then make the new seal and what happens then? Is that little pill effervesces almost like you know, you get the alka-seltzer and you drop it in the glass and it creates lots of fizz. It does that very slowly for the programmed duration of whatever they've put into this, to actually slow down the rate and that causes gradual release of gas over up to a year, forcing the plunger down and forcing the grease out. But now we're on to the exciting one which we're going to open, as you put all this stuff out, the way this one uses uh gas generation, possibly using a dedicated type of battery, designed to release the gas and uh.

I'm not sure how this opens. There is this little slot here. It does say that you can open them for uh to actually basically take the batteries out for safer environmental dis, disposable uh. I'm gon na put a screwdriver, i'm gon na apply unreasonable force in here.

It's just popped out. Is it intact? It is intact. What do we have right? Tell you what at the bottom we have? Oh, so this is just producing all the gas in here. That is amazing.

Oh, i see what they're doing that's very clever right. Okay, so we have a little wiper here and, as you turn it round, it's going around this resistor. Can you see this tell you what i'm going to focus on this resistor, so you can see it. So i'm going to focus down onto that and then they're going to zoom up in it.

It's basically a pre-programmed resistor with an internal wiper contact going on to the end. So, as you turn it to the different settings, it will uh vary the amount of current flowing through that cell. That is very clever right. Okay, let's get back down onto the bench here and focus back down onto that.

This is where i go: complete out, focus and, let's see what's in here, this is very, very interesting. It's actually a lot simpler than i was expecting. This is good. Here's one of the electrical connections.

Does this mean you could effectively if they supplied the refill cartridges? I don't think they will, though, although having said that these things aren't that expensive. Well, i say: they're not expensive they're about 30 pounds each, but you know that is nothing compared to the cost of getting people to do the maintenance and going around a grease gun on a regular basis. Keep in mind, if you put that on and it lasts a year that is basically um a year's regular greasing released. It's you know you don't have to go around that.

Often here is what do we have here. It looks like two standard batteries pressed into a little thing, but where's the gas going to come from. I show well, i've tried taking this apart. First, are there going to be any noxious chemicals in it? A's video, it was just grease asunder and not just grease asunder.

It was liquidus under all over his fingers and everything is this a standard battery or is this actually the gas cell? This thing was going up, and one connection was going on to the bottom of this, and the other connection was going on to the side of that. So that would that's the wiper connector that was going to the back, but which of these produces the gas. I'm going to measure this with a meter. It's set to 20 volts that'll.

Do let's try and rescue this leave that jam on a circuit board. Is this going to be 1.50 per cell 0.3? Okay, are these custom chemical cells? Then it almost looks like it. I was expecting that to be a standard alkaline type cell, but it looks as though it may be a chemical reaction with that resistance that uh right tell you what i'm going to try and get this apart and then i'll take pictures of it. So you can see it if there's anything, to see right, tell you what one moment please and we're back and wow just wow.

This is utterly amazing. Now the reason there was a cup joining these two cells together, i thought there was going to be some membrane in here with like a chemical soaked into it, so that it caused electrolysis and gas that way. No, it doesn't, and i wondered why there were labels over the backs of the two cells. Both the cells had a label over the back, and i peeled one off and it revealed two little holes suggesting these may actually be zinc: air style batteries.

So this is the one i've peeled off, so the one the left still has a label on. Let's put that over there and this one: has the label peeled off, allowing air to enter it, but they're not actually allowing your 10 trip they're using it in a sort of reverse way. If i bring in a meter uh, let's put it over here, where it's a bit more visible and i go to the one: that's still got the tab in the back. The voltage measured is about 0.4 volts.

If i go to the one that i've peeled the tab off, the voltage has shot up to 1.3 volts, which is strange enough. The voltage of a zinc air battery won't peel the tab off one of the most safe and inert batteries about scenario need to salvage the batteries out of these before disposing of them. It's very, very inert materials. So what they're doing here is they have got two.

Presumably zinc air batteries with their seals still intact, and that's going by the time it's sealed into this unit with its little o-ring here to stop the gasket out here. The only way the gas can get out is to displace the grease out by pushing that plunger down. I don't think, there's anything else down there. I think that really is just just a plunger.

It's just a plunger. If i squeeze it, is it going to yeah? It's going to it's going to build up a lot of pressure, that's impressive! Once it's in there, any oxygen might penetrate and isn't going to have really much effect, but what it will be doing, because the batteries are bridged and because it's that low base voltage, i'm guessing it must just be creating gas out of the chemistry inside. It's venting out the holes that would normally let the air in and it will squeeze its way either through these labels or under the adhesive at the side. And that's what liberates the gas but to vary the time duration.

They have a custom potentiometer here which has little segments, little metal, conductive ink segments and then the resistive carbon loaded ink over the top. So that from the first segment here is about 2.6 k and then it's basically another 2.6 k all the way around to about 30k when it runs to the end, and then you run it right off the end to where there's nothing. That's it in the off position. It is so simple and also the way they've got these just stacked uh in here with that little joining cup to actually bridge over the fact, because if they just sat these together, it wouldn't make connection because of that uh ceiling membrane there, the protective cover, but If they'd, they use that cup to bridge them across it sits in and then just this little thing clips in over the front and the side contacts make contact with the positive at the back and the negative contact clips decisively in here.

The negative contact makes contact with the inner contact of this, and then that outer ring just wipes around and all it's doing is just putting a resistor across the cells. Let me show you the schematic you're not going to be impressed. It's two cells, two cells and a resistor that can run right off the end to turn it off. That is it.

How genius is that um? I wonder how much work it took to develop that, because the diameter of this will be have been determined to dispose. Ultimately, by the the current and diameter will be the two factors here for the amount of gas produced and by the time it gets to the end, how much more uh gas can it put out. I wonder if it's got a good allowance, i guess maybe it might vent excess gas out the back once the pressure builds up too high, very, very intriguing, totally nothing like i was expecting. I was expecting something sophisticated, not two of these.

What appear to be zinc? Air cell batteries - oh here's a close-up of the potentiometer - it doesn't really show a lot more because it's very black, very black, but it shows these little segments that i don't know if this is going to show up at all, but they actually form little steps. And i think they've also got other segments in here to regulate it. So it's a very decisive resistance between each step and i thought it might be some variable resistance so that over the course of uh a year it would allow for the voltage dropping site. But i don't know if that happens with the zinc air batteries, so it is just a fixed step of about 2.65 000 ohms per month required of gas liberation.

That is very clever um. So if you're, looking for automatic lubrication for equipment, the skf system, 24 automatic lubricator is so simple. That really could anything go wrong. So that's it very clever, not really much to say about what there's lots to say about it really but uh.

It's all summed up in a few words just because it's a miracle of optimization. It's such a clever application. So if you know uh, i'm gon na have to do a bit research and sing yourselves. Now i didn't immediately see indications that they liberate gas.

I wonder who came up with that idea? It's very clever. It is in fact genius.