By Jim Fitch, edited and paraphrased by Kathryn Carnes
Lubricants World magazine
By some estimates, condition monitoring has been around for more than a century, but it is only within the last 5-10 years (and particularly the last 2 or 3) that interest has been at fever pitch. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of companies are involved in manufacturing or selling services or equipment for lubricant analysis, wear metals analysis, and vibration analysis, any and all of which can be part of a condition monitoring program. Within the realm of oil analysis itself are many types of tests that can be performed and many instruments that can be used to measure factors of interest. What distinguishes condition monitoring from other uses of oil analysis is not so much the specific techniques used as it is the repeated performance of testing and (most important) the tracking and trending of the results to determine changes in the health of an equipment-lube system over time. Using this information, the practitioner can take proactive measures to avert damage and downtime, saving money, time, and resources.