The maintenance manager sends you a photo of a press covered in grease nipples and a question: “How much to automate this?”. Before giving a price you have to know the points, the shifts, the system and the control, and size the pump, the metering blocks and the tubing by hand.
The technical sales engineer of a company that makes and installs centralised lubrication systems opens his phone and finds the photo: a stamping press with 18 grease nipples, dried grease on half of them and a message from the maintenance manager: “Two shifts. One operator loses half a morning greasing. How much would it cost me to automate it?”. It does not say which grease is used, whether the machine has a PLC or where the pump could go. Answering takes a visit or five emails.
That week he has 11 open offers and three factory visits. Every offer repeats the same work: counting points, deciding between progressive and single line, choosing a manual, electric or pneumatic pump, splitting outlets between metering blocks, measuring the metres of tubing and counting fittings. The spreadsheet helps, but every machine is different and the judgement is his. If he gets a metering block wrong, the fitter finds out at the customer's plant, with the press at a standstill.
When he finally sends the offer, the maintenance manager has to defend it to purchasing with a diagram nobody else understands. Purchasing sees a number and compares it with the offer from another installer which, with a simpler system and no cycle sensor, comes out cheaper. The conversation stops being about greasing hours and seized bearings and turns into one about discounts. The offer sits in the pending tray for weeks.
The request arrives with a photo and little else. The exact points are missing, so are the shifts, the type of lubricant, whether there is a PLC and whether the tubing will run through an area with impacts or heat. Every missing detail is an email or a call, and until they are all in nobody can start sizing.
What it costs youDays of back and forth before the first price can be given.
You read a diagram with a pump and primary and secondary metering blocks at a glance. The person who signs at the customer's factory sees a drawing of lines: they do not know where the reservoir will go, where the tubing will run or what happens if a point blocks. And what is not understood does not get approved.
What it costs youThe decision is put off until someone can explain it in person.
Splitting 18 or 40 outlets between metering blocks, working out metres of primary and secondary tubing and counting fittings is an engineer's job. It is done the same for the offer that becomes an order as for the one that never gets a reply, and it ties up exactly the person who knows your equipment best.
What it costs youTechnical office hours spent on offers that never get signed.
Purchasing puts two offers side by side and looks at the final figure. The hours of manual greasing that disappear, the grease that stops being wasted and the stoppages from a dry point appear in neither of them. Without that in view, the simplest system wins.
What it costs youMargin given away to compete with worse equipment.
The bill of materials is copied by hand from the spreadsheet into the order. A metering block with fewer outlets, a few metres of tubing short or a dozen forgotten fittings are discovered with the fitter already at the plant, next to a machine the customer has stopped for the installation.
What it costs youA second trip out and a customer starting to lose confidence.
Put in your own numbers. The example values correspond to a small technical team that sizes every lubrication offer by hand.
€ a month
The values are an example: replace them with yours. The calculation is a simple multiplication and does not come from any study.
The customer chooses their machine (press, machining centre or conveyor), the number of points, the shifts, the system, the pump and the control. The message that reaches you already says whether the signal will come from the PLC, what reservoir it needs and whether the tubing will run through an area with impacts or heat.
A guided configuration in three stepsThe system appears installed on the chosen machine, with the pump, the reservoir, the metering blocks and every point marked. One click shows the grease travelling to each point. Maintenance shows it to purchasing on a phone, with no diagram and no engineer standing next to them.
An animated 3D view with labels
With the points and the system chosen, out come the metering blocks needed, the metres of primary and secondary tubing and the reservoir. In your version your own sizing rules are built in, so the engineer checks a proposal instead of starting from scratch every time.
Sizing with your own rules
Alongside the configuration are the hours of manual greasing saved per year and the grease no longer wasted, calculated from their points and their shifts. They can also compare up to three options, for example progressive against single line, with the differences highlighted.
Yearly saving and an option comparison tool
Pump with its reservoir, metering blocks, metres of tubing, fittings, pressure gauge, level sensor and control, each with its reference and quantity. The sheet goes to the workshop, or into your ERP if we connect it, with no copying the list from the spreadsheet and no relying on memory.
Factory order sheetChoose a press, put the lubrication points up to 40, switch from progressive to single line and turn on “See the grease flowing”: watch how the metering blocks, the tubing and the order sheet change.
An open demo, with no registration, with example products and prices. It is designed for manufacturers, dealers and installers: private customers are welcome to try it, but we do not sell the product.
In 20 minutes we configure it together in the demo and show you what it would take for it to come out with your components, your sizing rules and your price list.
Most projects for manufacturers fall between €14,500 and €35,000, depending on the catalogue, the manufacturing rules and the integrations. Maintenance and hosting from €190 a month. We start from a base that already works: you are not paying for development from scratch.
Would you rather talk it through? Call 662 061 421 or write to grup3d@grup3d.es.
There are more short answers in frequently asked questions about 3D configurators and who we are in 3D configurator company.
It is a tool on your website where the customer chooses their machine, the lubrication points, the shifts, the system, the pump and the control. They see the system installed in 3D, with the grease flowing, and get an indicative price, the hours of manual greasing saved per year and an order sheet that reaches you with references and quantities.
Yes. In the demo they choose between a progressive, single line or oil system, and the configuration adapts. In your version we build in your rules: which systems you allow depending on the number of points or the lubricant, which combinations you do not make and which pump matches each case, so nobody asks for something you then have to correct.
Yes, and they should. The configurator does the base calculation with your rules: metering blocks, metres of tubing, reservoir and fittings. Your engineer reviews the proposal, confirms whatever is needed during the visit and adjusts it. The difference is that they no longer start from a photo and an email, but from a complete configuration with the machine's data.
Yes. Each machine builder or distributor can have their own area, with their margin and their brand: they configure the lubrication for their customer, show it to them in 3D and send you the order sheet with the right references. Simple enquiries stop going through your technical office and orders reach you already defined.
Yes. The sales engineer opens it on a phone or a tablet by scanning a QR code, configures it with the maintenance manager standing at the machine and leaves them the PDF of the configuration. If there are doubts between two systems, they compare them right there, with the differences highlighted and the saving for each option.
The price is set by the machines and systems you want to offer, how complex your sizing rules are, your price list and whether the order sheet has to go into your ERP or CRM. We look at your case in a 20-minute call and send you a fixed figure. As a guide for a bespoke development: developments start from €6,500 for a visual configurator of one product family; most projects for manufacturers fall between €14,500 and €35,000, depending on the catalogue, the rules and the integrations, plus maintenance from €190 a month.
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Split, multi-split or ducted
See page →Pallet racking, picking or cantilever
See page →Belt, roller or modular belt · animated
See page →A guide to ordering or making a centralised lubrication system: points, shifts, progressive or single-line system, pump, reservoir, control, tubing and the typical mistakes.
Read the guide (in Spanish) →