Patent ID: 8607933
Filing Date: 2013-12-17
Classification: F16N

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a lubricant dispenser having a housing; a shiftable piston subdividing an interior of the housing into a generally closed gas compartment and a lubricant compartment; a body of lubricant in the lubricant compartment; a gas generator associated with the gas compartment and electrically energizable to produce gas and pressurize the gas compartment, shift the piston, and express lubricant from an outlet of the lubricant compartment at a rate generally proportional to a gas pressure in the gas compartment; a power supply; and a microprocessor having a memory and connected between the power supply and the gas generator, whereby the gas generator can be energized from the power supply via the microprocessor, the method comprising the steps of: storing a set of control parameters in the memory; during a first predetermined part of predetermined length of an operational cycle of the dispenser corresponding to a startup phase, energizing the gas generator in accordance with one of the parameters at a first level corresponding to a maximum gas-generation rate of the device and thereby expressing the lubricant from the lubricant compartment at a corresponding maximum rate; and during a second predetermined part of the operational cycle after the first part, at first energizing the gas generator in accordance with another of the parameters at a second level different from and significantly less than the first level and thereafter increasing regularly so as to compensate for losses of the gas from the gas compartment by diffusion through the housing.