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gravity fed drip lube system w/bijurs

cyanidekid

Titanium
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Location
Brooklyn NYC
has anyone come across, or designed a central multipoint gravity fed drip lube system?
its for a medium sized piece of food industry gear, and I'm looking at possibly using a 1-2 pint tank with 4 or 5 bijur metering ports.
yes, I know it is highly variable being only gravity fed, dependent on temperature and viscosity, but it's better than nothing, which is what it has now.
wondering if there is any information on drip rates? thanks!
 
I don't think you're going to get the ~5psi needed for the Bijur meter to open with a gravity feed unless you're on Jupiter. (Unless I'm completely misunderstanding your description)
 
Bijur makes two types of meter fittings.The ones for a one shot system have to have a pressure pump to work.The ones for a continuous flow system will work with a gravity feed system(they are just a restrictor orifice without a metering piston)

I made a gravity feed system from parts from McMaster Carr a while ago.It was for the chains on a delivery platform.
I used adjustable needle valves to feed oiler brushes for the chains.From the tank I used a solenoid valve activated whenever the platform was raised or lowered to feed the meter valves.Don't remember the cost but wasn't very expensive.
 
The only gravity-feed lube system I've ever used is for a big open gearbox in a very old machine, the flow is controlled only by the viscosity of the oil being high and the pipes being small. The only way it can work is with a tiny head tank (only about 2" cube) to keep the head pressure low so the drip rate is slow, the flow rate was originally set in the work shop by trial and error and changing the pipe size and oil type. It takes about two days to empty the tank and has been recently modified with a tiny float switch to fill the tank automatically when it gets lower than a certain level, it works well and no longer needs filling every few days

Have you considered a moving plunger operated lube system? can't remember whet it's called but the oil is in a cylindrical tube and you pull the plunger up to the top and it moves down very slowly delivering oil one drip at a time, providing the pipes are small the cylinder forms a vacuum and prevents excess oil from running through
 








 
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