FLO Components Ltd., located in Mississauga, is currently working with several asphalt companies to install an automatic lubrication system (ALS) on their asphalt storage silos.

In the asphalt plant, a truck drives under the silo, and the material is put into the truck body and then transported by the truck to the place where the paver is laying the asphalt. 

There is a door or gate at the bottom of the silo, which must be able to open and close repeatedly when the factory is full of trucks. The hinges or bearings on these doors must be properly lubricated, because a jammed door can be catastrophic.

FLO marketing expert Gabriel Lopez (Gabriel Lopez) said: "If it gets stuck in a closed state, the truck below will not be able to deliver materials to the asphalt crew and everything will stop."

"To make matters worse, if the gate is stuck open, it will pour the very hot asphalt from the entire silo into the truck, the ground, and usually even on the scale. The truck may have driven away. Hope no one is hurt, But you will face a lot of cleanup work and potential environmental and safety issues, and all road paving will stop."  

A stuck silo door can cause serious costs and major downtime. According to Lopez, if a paving equipment fails during work and forces the asphalt paving staff to stop production, the cost incurred exceeds $2,500 per minute. If repairs and cleaning are required, a jammed door will also prevent people from putting down work, incurring the same or more costs.

"If it happens to you, you will feel the pain," he said.  

According to Lopez, currently, on many silos, points requiring grease are remotely routed to the side of the door. However, "this is not just a case of going to the lubrication point and connecting the grease gun," he said.

Trucks must be able to enter under the gate, so these points are usually 6 meters higher, requiring manual lifts, ladders or other things to lift workers to lubricate these points. This can lead to potential safety risks, the use of seat belts and other safety measures, and the rental of manned lifts. In addition, lubrication cannot be carried out through remote lines during the production process, so lubrication before or after may cause workers to work overtime.  

FLO's solution is to use an automatic lubrication system (ALS) to lubricate the four main points of the gate. ALS is an independent grease lubrication system, usually installed on a support structure or I-beam in a silo. This is a fully monitored system with a grease tank and 120V pump on the ground, a single supply line connected to a distribution valve installed under the silo, and a heat-resistant feed line connected to the bearing point.  

The operation of the ALS is linked to the start of production and is programmed to run on timed and adjustable intervals.  

When the silo is running, the pump is started regularly, and a small amount of grease is sent to each bearing point. Lopez said this is one of the biggest advantages of ALS, because the bearing rotates when receiving grease, which provides better coverage and protection.

"The silo lubrication system helps eliminate the Karmen situation and all the shortcomings of using remote grease lines, in addition to providing you with all the standard advantages of Autoluber-reduced downtime, increased productivity, improved worker and environmental safety," Lopez Say. "This is just another way of FLO, as it is said here,'helping to eliminate the pain of our customers.'"