Machinery Cleaners, Oils and Lubricants

Food grade lubricants - prolonging the life of your machinery

Industrial machines and equipment are expensive. Regular maintenance and lubrication is essential to protect it and keep your machinery in tip-top working order.

Whether you are manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, a brewery, bakery or producers of meat and poultry products, ensuring your machinery is running efficiently is paramount.

Can you use just any old oil on machines used in food manufacturing environments? The simple answer is no. Any lubricant, grease or machinery cleaner used around food products must be H1 registered for incidental contact with foodstuffs.

Industrial cleaning machines and industrial cleaning equipment such as pressure washer could be used to really power through build up of old greases and grime but will such a lot of water you'd almost certainly need to follow that up with a scrubber dryer! Often this is not practical in the middle of a factory or warehouse. And certainly not on or around electrical equipment!

Food grade machinery cleaner is an alternative can be used to clean machinery parts prior to lubrication. Many of these can even be used on electric panels and instruments. The suitability for use of spray cleaners can vary, with some only used in non-food manufacturing areas so always check the specifications before use.

There are three main groups of machinery fluids. Grease, oil and cleaners. These, obviously, have different purposes.

Food grade grease

Food grade greases are ideal for using on roller and ball bearings, bushes, slides and guides and other general points requiring grease. Regular greasing will help these components to run smoothly and protect them from wear, making them last longer.

Food grade greases which are registered to H1 standards are safe to use in food and clean industries. The greases will operate at a wide range of temperatures making them a versatile choice. They'll not only help you to prolong the life of your food equipment, but also protect them from corrosion.

If you're looking for food grade grease which is certified suitable for use in factories producing Halal and Kosher products check out Vickers Oils Vickerlube Food Grade Grease 2 and Vickerlube Food Grade HLW Grease 2.

Lubricants can be applied using a spray format. Particularly useful for those hard-to-reach areas, sprays will remove water and offer a good coverage or trickily shaped machine parts.

Food grade machinery oil

The number one job of any lubricant is to reduce friction between moving parts. There are such a wide range of food grade industrial lubricants available, there will certainly be one for you.

Lubricating properties vary from product to product. But all types of lubricant that are certified NSF H1 will be OK to use in and around food and beverage producing facilities. Manufactured to be safe for human consumption, in small quantities obviously!

Machinery lubricants for your business

There are other types of specialist lubricants on the market, such as those for sewing machines or 2 stroke garden machinery oil and even dry lubricants, commonly used in locks and useful if you're looking for a lube which creates a protective film yet doesn't leave residue. But these are not food safe. Neither do they need to be.

Food safe H1 lubricants are good to use around all types of food. But for specialist food manufacturing processes like Kosher or Halal, specific types of greases and fluids are designed especially certified for those uses.

So, where ever there is food or beverage in production, and machinery which comes into contact with food, opt for a lubricant made from food grade materials. Even incidental food contact with non-certified oils an greases can contaminate food and render them unsafe for human consumption. This can clearly be extremely costly.

So enjoy this wide range of oils and greases and help your machinery provide you with many years of service.