Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Good Lubrication Management in the Pressroom
You’d be hard-pressed to find a stamping company that isn’t looking for ways to improve operations and reduce costs. Stampers tend to address these issues by examining equipment costs, tooling and processing methods. Yet, lubrication usage is often the overlooked low-hanging fruit that can push efficiencies throughout a manufacturing facility by lowering costs, improving quality and achieving higher throughput.
When it comes to lubrication usage, most stamping companies simply look at the cost of the lubricant over the course of a year, but many do not have a holistic view of the total cost of use. Although the costs for lubricant and its waste removal are tracked, stampers need to be aware of other hidden costs in a lubrication program.
Other factors that should be evaluated when looking at the impact of lubrication usage include stamping press downtime for lubricant changeover, scrapped parts due to poor lubricant quality and transport costs of lubricant shipments. When those issues are better understood, the positive impacts proper lubrication management can have on a stamping operation include:
Reduced downtime: Companies tend to underestimate downtime for lubricant changes, which involves cleaning the applicators, repositioning the sprayers and so on. This is especially true when it comes to hand mixing and hauling buckets of lubricant to the press station. Each time the operator turns off the press to refill the reservoir, time is lost, which adds up to a large cost for lost production. To get an idea of the extent of those losses, a simple formula (see page X) can provide a quick idea of how much money is being left on the table… read more at FABshop Direct Magazine’s website.
