Cutting costs and reducing downtime risk for machine builders

Across Europe's machine-building sector - especially when it comes to food, beverage and pharmaceutical environments - stainless steel fasteners are a small component that often hide a disproportionate amount of cost, complexity and operational risk.

When bolts seize, gall or require time-consuming greasing to prevent galling from happening, the impact cascades directly into labour hours, production delays and avoidable waste. To address this problem, a growing number of OEMs are shifting to pre-lubricated stainless steel fasteners; a change that is de-risking machine performance in the field for their end users.

The implications of galling in sensitive environments

Whether ungreased or greased improperly, stainless threads can seize unexpectedly, particularly during high-speed assembly. In fact, manufacturers estimate that roughly one in every 100 bolts seize, possibly because of unintentionally not greasing or not properly greasing the bolts.

When galling occurs, the bolt effectively welds itself in place, and each seized fastener can cost 20 minutes or more to rectify. Removing it requires cutting, drilling or grinding; none of which are acceptable inside a hygienic food-processing line or a clean machinery build.

For end-users reconfiguring equipment on site, a galled bolt can halt a production process and generate metal debris in sensitive environments. Preventing galling is therefore not just a maintenance benefit; it's a business continuity issue.

The true cost of manually greased fasteners

For many OEMs and their end users, manually greasing bolts to prevent galling has long been treated as a necessary inconvenience. Operators typically pick up a bolt in one hand, apply grease with a brush in the other, return the applicator to its container, and then fit the fastener - a seemingly brief sequence that takes around five seconds per bolt.

Once the bolt is tightened, excess grease oozes out and must be wiped away to avoid contamination or residue on the machine, adding further time. In fact, internal time-and-motion studies indicate that the full greasing and cleanup process consumes up to 25 seconds per bolt. For larger machine builds with thousands of fasteners, that process can equate to minutes per assembly stage, hours per build and days of aggregate annual labour.

In the case of one of our customers, the cumulative savings from eliminating manual greasing exceeded 200,000 per year at a single plant. Grease consumption itself also adds a smaller but notable recurring cost. Depending on the grease brand and application rate, eliminating the purchase of anti-seize compounds can deliver a further 3,000 in annual savings.

Additionally, machine builders or end users tend to use grease inconsistently. Some apply specialist anti-seize compounds while others use readily available alternatives such as vaseline or copper grease, which may not be designed for stainless steel fasteners, may not be food-safe and can raise regulatory or environmental questions.

Greasing does not just consume time and material - it also generates waste. Cleaning excess grease from components and benches leads to contaminated rags, used brushes, disposable gloves and packaging, much of which must be handled as chemical waste. Additionally, an estimated 10% of all grease used ends up in the bin, creating unnecessary environmental load.

Building cleaner, safer more predictable machines

Lubrinox fasteners are specifically designed to prevent galling, minimising machine downtime and reducing the total cost of ownership. Each bolt and nut arrives with a factory-applied, high-performance lubrication coating that dramatically reduces friction while remaining completely dry, odourless and invisible.

The coating provides consistent friction characteristics (around 0.12 +/- 0.04), making torque levels predictable and reducing the effort required during tightening. Because the coating is bonded to the metal, it does not smudge, rub off or attract dirt, helping maintain clean workstations and improving hygiene. Thread-locking compounds can still be applied as needed; something not always compatible with greasy residue.

Lubrinox fasteners are also UV-detectable, supporting quality inspection in regulated manufacturing environments, and they perform safely across a wide temperature range - from deep-cold storage applications to high-temperature processing equipment.

The implications for machine builders are significant. With Lubrinox fasteners, assembly time drops immediately because operators bypass the entire greasing workflow. Instead of 25 seconds per bolt, the time required is simply the bolt-insertion cycle itself. Across full machine builds, the time saving is consistent, predictable and repeatable.

With pre-lubricated fasteners, operators simply pick up the bolt and fit it, eliminating all the grease-related micro-steps. The result is a faster, cleaner, more controlled assembly process and one that eliminates both the labour cost of greasing and the risk cost of fastener failure.

Lubrinox fasteners are already used across the food processing, dairy, pharmaceutical, petrochemical and general machine-building sectors - essentially anywhere stainless steel is essential and food-grade compliant cleanliness is a priority. They are available from stock through Fabory across a full range of common DIN and ISO standards, with full batch traceability.

In industries where margins are tight and production schedules are unforgiving, eliminating 25 seconds of waste per fastener is no small detail - it is a clear competitive advantage.