Abstract
The compressibility of a grease can affect in two ways the time required for the operation of a twin-line dispensing system. First, during the application of pump pressure to one of the two main pipes of the system, time is taken to compress grease into the pipe in addition to that taken to supply grease to the bearings along the pipe. Secondly, during the next cycle, when that pipe is opened to the atmosphere and the other one is being pressurized, time is required for the compressed grease to flow back into the reservoir and thus for the pressure in the pipe to fall to a value sufficiently low to allow the dispensing valves to operate.
Formulae are given for calculating these time factors, and for typical modern practice times of about 2 or 3 min are obtained. This explains the observation that some twin-line systems cannot be successfully operated on cycle times as short as 3 min. The formulae may be useful in the design of twin-line systems.
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