World-class condition monitoring of hydraulic systems involves the successful integration of a number of strategic elements. While in the past, walk-around inspections and gage data were the primary means of monitoring system health, today’s modem oil analysis programs apply a host of sophisticated new tools and instruments. Reliability teams at the plant site frequently commission small laboratories. In many cases the instrumentation suite includes portable and unattended sensors. The situational context is changing too as today’s hydraulic systems are increasingly designed for higher pressures, speeds, and temperatures. This paper presents a review of strategic elements that, when well conceived and implemented, can deliver vital aiding information for achieving even the toughest condition-based maintenance goals. These include the selection of test slate, deployment of incipient failure advisories, setting of targets and limits that define nonconforming conditions, exception testing, and proactive maintenance.

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When working from a single sample, it is common for labs to classify wear particles according to standardized shapes such as platelets, chunks, ribbons and spheres. The task of deriving meaning from the number and size of particles in the different classifications is much more difficult. Condition monitoring is not about science – it’s about understanding and reporting what is happening, why it’s happening, where it’s happening, and how severe or threatening the condition might be. This can be a daunting task, to say the least, especially if you are not being assisted by a particle-counting technology.

The lubricant co-exists with the machine and has an active presence in its critical frictional zones. As such, the progression of wear-related machine failures does not go unnoticed by the lubricant. The byproducts of wear and surface damage become suspended in the lubricant, embedded in the filter, or stratified as sediment in nooks and crannies.

As failure advances, most wear modes produce more particles, and some also produce larger particles. In certain cases, what was thought to be an advanced failure state may suddenly appear benign or in decline. There are reasons for this, so do not be fooled. The wounds and excavations from wear do not heal over on their own.

The time has come to increase the specificity of wear particle characterization. The four basic shapes were a good start, but there is much more we can learn and apply. For those who understand vibration, imagine being limited to vibration overalls or only what is produced in the low-frequency velocity spectrum. Likewise, thermal imaging has shown us how to look far beyond discrete temperature values or trends. This analogy applies to wear debris analysis as well. The appearance of particles holds many clues that generally go unnoticed or are just not understood.

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The most common methods for initial detection of abnormal levels of wear debris in used oils include elemental analysis, ferrous density analysis (DR, etc.), particle counting and patch testing. For some users, because of the criticality of the application, all of these screening tests for wear metals are integrated into the routine test slate.

In such cases, when sampling is done correctly, it would be rare for the abnormal production of wear metals to go undetected. However, when only one or two of these methods are routinely deployed, there is a distinct risk that an incipient (early stage) failure condition may be missed.

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The most widely used laboratory methods for initial detection of abnormal levels of wear debris in used oils include elemental analysis, ferrous density analysis (DR, etc.), particle counting and patch testing.

For some users, because of the criticality of their machines, all of these screening tests for wear metals are integrated into the routine test slate. In such cases, when sampling is done correctly, it would be rare for the abnormal production of wear metals to go undetected.

However, when only one or two of these methods are routinely deployed, there is a distinct risk that an incipient (early stage) failure condition may be overlooked or dismissed as inconsequential.

The post Tactics For Identifying Wear Metal and Solid-particle Suspensions appeared first on Tesibis.