As with any investment it is important to complete a return-on-investment analysis to determine the value of an automated greasing system's benefit against the cost. There are a lot of obvious benefits for an automatic greasing system, like increased operator safety, fewer breakdowns or expensive repairs, significantly less wasted labor, higher equipment resale value, just to name a few. How quickly can a system pay for itself?
The results are often surprising. Payback is most often only a couple months to a year and, since the system is designed to outlast the equipment it is installed on, the savings that can be achieved after this can be tremendous.
The biggest influence on an auto grease system cost is the pump, the single most expensive component of any auto lube system. Counterintuitively, the more lubrication points a piece of equipment has, the more this cost is dispersed, driving the cost per point for a fully automatic system downward as the number of points increase. Moreover, the labor savings increase with the number of greasable points, giving a faster payback, too.
A second big influence on the price of a system is the amount of line protection and routing required. Most fully automatic systems are easy decisions on larger production machines, like excavators, wheel loaders and haul trucks, but they can be installed on smaller pieces of equipment, too, like skid steers, forklifts, or mini-loaders. The amount of line protection (loom, super-tube, rock collars, or spring guard) and routing issues can heavily influence upfront installation costs.
If you’d like help assessing ROI on your specific equipment, Lubecore MN would be happy help. Just give us a call!