By Jim Fitch
Practicing Oil Analysis Magazine
Imagine the filter inside your machine is made of fibers the size of telephone poles, stacked randomly in all directions, many layers thick. Each juncture where poles touch is a drop of super glue for support. To emulate actual operating conditions, the stack of poles is placed on a large moving and vibrating table.
Now, imagine that the contaminants inside your oil are lumps of gelatin, clumps of tar, ping-pong balls, marbles, tree branches, powdery sand, beanbags, strips of sheet metal, streams of honey, wet rags and beach balls. To begin our example, suppose that you had large containers of these different contaminants beside you as you perch on top of scaffolding hovering above the stack of telephone poles.