THK rails lubricated with oil are only coated with rust preventive oil upon delivery. Please specify the required lubricating oil when ordering. If not installed horizontally, the oil circulation in some areas of the steel ball rolling surface may be poor. Therefore, be sure to use the correct installation method for THK rails.

　　Lubricating grease needs to be added during use. Grease not only lubricates and reduces friction between machines, but also prevents the corrosion of metals by water vapor in the air, thus extending the service life and preventing rust. Using THK rails provides good lubrication. If used without lubrication, the rolling parts will wear out faster, thus shortening the service life. Under special conditions such as frequent vibration, clean rooms, vacuum, low temperature or high temperature, it may not be possible to provide grease lubrication for THK rails normally.

　　1. High-speed motion: Select low-torque, low-heat grease.

　　2. Vacuum: Select fluorine-based vacuum grease or lubricating oil (vapor pressure varies depending on the product).

　　3. Dust-free: Select products with a small amount of dust.

　　4. Environments subject to micro-vibration or micro-stroke limitations may cause micro-vibration wear and corrosion; in this case, the lubricant is selected to have an easily flowing oil film and high resistance to micro-motion wear and corrosion.

　　5. Environments subject to splashing coolant from machine tools, etc.; in this case, refined mineral oil or synthetic oil is used, with high oil film strength, not easily emulsified or washed away by coolant, and high corrosion resistance. Waterproof grease.

　　Lubrication Methods for THK Rails

　There are roughly three methods for lubricating linear motion systems: manual greasing using a grease gun or manual pump, forced lubrication using an automatic pump, and oil path lubrication.

　　1. Manual

　　Generally, grease is periodically replenished through the oil nipples provided on the THK rail linear motion system using a grease gun. For systems with many parts requiring lubrication, centralized piping can be used to periodically replenish grease manually from a certain location.

　　Note: Due to the viscous resistance of the pipeline, the lubricant may not reach the end of the pipeline. Therefore, please consider the consistency of the grease, the pipe diameter, and the operating conditions comprehensively. In addition, even THK rails with sealing gaskets will gradually leak internal lubricant during operation. Therefore, grease needs to be replenished at appropriate intervals according to the operating conditions.

　 2. Forced Lubrication Method

　　Use an automatic pump to forcibly inject a specified amount of lubricant at specified intervals. Although pipeline design needs to be considered, this method reduces the possibility of forgetting to replenish.

Note: Especially in environments where water-soluble coolant is splashed, even using some lubricating oils with moderate viscosity will significantly reduce their lubricating performance or fail to form a proper oil film due to emulsification or washing depending on the type of coolant. Please check the compatibility between the coolant and the lubricant.