Now that you’ve established a preventative maintenance routine, you’re probably wondering if you’re spending too much time doing maintenance that is unnecessary. In the coming months we’ll give you our top three things you should be doing to maintain your shredding truck, beginning with…
1. Greasing and Lubrication
Greasing and lubrication is a must when it comes to Maintenance. There are multiple moving parts in a shredder, and all of them are at risk for at least one of the following: rust, corrosion, pitting, and skewing. Fortunately, these are preventable with the proper lubrication.
When applied properly, lubrication has many benefits:
- Reduces the friction and abrasion caused by direct metal-to-metal contact
- Transports heat generated by friction
- Prolongs the service life of the shredder
- Prevents harmful rust and corrosion
- Prevents objects and contamination from interfering with moving elements
Greasing and lubricating are crucial if you want to maintain your shredder, however, it is also important to be wary of the following when applying a lubricant:
- Selecting the wrong lubricant – be sure to know whether grease or oil is needed for the specific application.
- Using too much or too little grease/oil – too much grease and the temperature can rise too high, too little grease and harmful metal-to-metal contact may occur
- Mixing lubricants – grease and oil should always be used separately
- Contaminating the lubricants – one of the primary functions of lubricants is to seal the contact surface and prevent the entrance of contaminants, so contaminating the lubricant would essentially defeat the purpose.
Before you go off and start getting trigger happy with your grease gun, it is important to refer to your shred truck’s manual for specific intervals on lubrication. Every make and model of shred trucks have different lubrication points and lubrication schedules, and it is vital to your shred truck performance that you refer to this information.
If you have any questions, please contact one of our qualified expert technicians at 866-520-8762 or service@shredsupply.com. They’ll be more than happy to help you with proper greasing and lubrication of your shred truck.
Over the coming months we’ll break down some more essential preventative maintenance, so be sure to stay tuned!