Patent ID: 7628293

Claim:
A grease supply apparatus comprising a pump to which a cartridge can be attached, and which sucks grease stored in the attached cartridge and supplies the grease to a part to which the grease is to be supplied, a controller which controls action of the pump, weight measuring means which measures a weight of the cartridge attached to the pump to thereby generate a weight measurement result, reference weight storing means which stores an initial reference weight of the cartridge and a grease supply reference weight per one operation cycle of the pump, grease supply amount calculating means which calculates weight of grease which is supplied from the cartridge when the pump is operated for one operation cycle under control of the controller from the weight measurement result of the weight measuring means, first determining means which compares the weight of the cartridge as measured by the weight measuring means with the initial reference weight of the cartridge stored in the reference weight storing means, and which determines whether the difference therebetween is within a permissible range or not, second determining means which compares the grease supply weight calculated by the grease supply amount calculating means with the grease supply reference weight stored in the reference weight storing means, and which determines whether the difference therebetween is within a permissible range or not, and informing means for informing of the first and second determination results from said first and second determining means, wherein weight of grease which is supplied during the one operation cycle is obtained from the weight measurement result of the weight measuring means as measured before and after execution of one operation cycle of the pump.