Aside from this article serving as a guide to grease gun parts and their functions, you will also learn about other relevant topics. These may include the different types of grease guns, best grease gun practices, and more.
Grease guns are used in several industries. And they involve from the more basic lubricating tasks to the more complicated lubricating tasks. One of the best ways for you to know how they work is to understand the different parts of a grease gun.
What Are The Different Types of Grease Guns?
Generally, grease guns are operated in three ways. You operate them by hand, air, or electricity. Besides how grease guns work, hand-operated or manual grease guns can either come with pistol grips or levers.
The benefits that you get from each grease gun depends on how you use them and what your preferences are in one. Another way of differentiating grease guns will have to be how their grease is loaded. You have the option to use a suction fill, bulk, or a cartridge.
1. Manual (lever)
This is basically the first and the most common grease gun being sold in the market. About 1.28 grams of grease is released through an aperture per pump.
2. Manual (pistol grip)
This type of lever grease gun enables the operator to only use one hand in pumping grease. For each pump, you get about 0.86 grams of grease.
3. Pneumatic (pistol grip)
Compressed air is used for this type of grease gun. Its hose helps to direct this air into the gun causing each trigger to activate a positive displacement.
4. Battery (pistol grip)
In terms of function, this grease gun is akin to the pneumatic grease gun variant. However, it makes use of low-voltage batteries and benefits most operators from being cordless.
One great example of this is the Lincoln 1844 Grease Gun.
The use of grease as lubricant is necessary for machines with moving parts. This is because they do not easily leak away with the likes of oil. With this reason alone, refilling and filling of grease in grease-lubricated machines should not be treated in the same way as those of oil-lubricated machines.
Thus, lubrication technicians should know a great deal on how to operate grease gun properly for machine reliability and bearing.
As a professional lubrication technician, it is important to acquire the knowledge of determining if under-greasing or over-greasing is done so that your grease guns can live a longer lifespan.
Adapters, Connectors, and Couplers
Most grease guns come with standard connection adapters like a hydraulic coupler. However, there may be differences depending on their application. Nevertheless, the standard hydraulic coupler is the most applicable and most commonly used.
Going for 90-degree adapters is best for fittings located in confined spaces that require for the tool to do a 90-degree bend. Going with an adapter with a needle-end, on the other hand, enables your grease gun to produce a precise and thin amount of grease for tight spaces. Meanwhile, a three-jaw swivel coupler is great for the application of different locking positions that fit well for different applications.
Fixed Tube vs. Flexible Hose
Deciding if you should get the fixed tube or the flexible hose all depends on what kind of grease-fitting type your grease gun has.
Your decision also depends on what kind of grease gun you are using and the ease of location where you must apply a lubricant.
For instance, if you are going to be applying grease in hard to reach areas, then you should go with a flexible hose. Going with the fixed tube option, on the other hand, is recommended if you will be making use of a lever-style grease gun that requires you to make use of both of your hands.
Accessories
So that you can make the most of the consumption of your grease lubricant, you can have grease gun meters retrofitted into your grease gun.
The use of plastic caps also helps to avoid your gun from getting debris and corrosion. You can also have your grease gun parts and accessories color-coded so that you will not have to risk cross-contamination.
You can also choose to get ultrasonic and sonic devices as other accessories for your grease guns.
Grease Fittings
There are a number of names for grease fittings. You have the Alemite fitting, grease nipple, and Zerk fitting. And this is the lubrication part of your gun where you can attach your grease connector.
For most common applications, the use of the standard hydraulic grease fittings is expected. You choose between angled or upright grease fittings.
Going for button-head fittings is the best option for good 
engagement of couplers. This great for adding large grease volumes. Meanwhile, if space is limited, going for flush-type grease fittings is a perfect choice if you must use standard protruding fittings.
On the other hand, the use of pressure-relief vent fitting is capable of preventing higher pressures that could potentially contribute to damaging seals.
Understanding How Grease Gun Parts Work
For manual-operated grease guns, the lever is used to hand-pump the grease from the barrel to the tube or hose. The same function can be expected from manual grease gun configurations that come with handles and triggers.
Now, what serves as the exoskeleton of your grease gun in the barrel. This is the part of your grease gun that houses the grease that comes from your bulk storage or your grease tube. The grease tube also goes by the name of grease cartridge.
It is typically an inserted grease housing that you can easily replace once your supply of grease lubricant is empty.
The hydraulic connector or coupler is the connection point that holds the fixed tube or hose. And it is found attached to the head of your grease gun.
The head of your grease gun is where you can find your grease valves and pathways. They allow the pumping of grease in order for it to travel from the barrel into your fixed tube or flexible hose.
From your filler pump, the filler nipple will serve as the injection point of your grease lubricant. The use of air-release nipple enables air to be expelled after new grease will be added into your grease gun and must be pumped back into your head.