Greasing chucks ensures consistent coefficient of friction

Kitagawa has developed its Chuck Grease Pro for use with Kitagawa chucks.

Due to the nature of a power chuck’s wedge design, the large contact areas generate a lot of friction. Combine this with the high axial loads and you get a very large variation in performance between a chuck that is well lubricated and one that is not, this can equate to as much as 30 per cent loss in grip force.

Take into account centrifugal grip loss and if running in the higher RPM range of the chuck it would be possible to find the chuck unable to hold onto the component.

Having a consistently greased chuck will give you a consistent coefficient of friction between the wedge plunger and base jaws and produce more consistent safer working condition.

Once per eight-hour shift a small quantity of grease should be pumped into each grease nipple and every six months or so the chuck should be removed from the machine and disassembled.

All of the grease galleries should be cleaned, as they have a habit of becoming blocked if chucks are not regularly greased. If starting a new regime of greasing it is worth completely disassembling and cleaning first off, to make sure the grease is getting to all the parts it needs to.