In leading maintenance organizations, managers don’t shrug off the importance of cleanliness. Instead, we are seeing these companies intrepidly improve fluid cleanliness targets over and over in their quest to enhance machine reliability. However, this practice has led to new challenges relating to both the ability to achieve the new targets and the cost of cleanliness. Filter flow rate is the opportunity.

Consider this: When you reset your target cleanliness by reducing the ISO Code by one number in each range-number slot, say from ISO 19/16/13 to ISO 18/15/12, then you will have approximately half as many particles in each gallon (or liter) of oil. This will, of course, reduce the number of potential abrasive contacts within your machine by around 50 percent – your goal.

Once you achieve this new cleanliness target (say, with the aid of a portable flushing filter), your system filter will be removing half as many particles as before. After all, a filter can remove only those particles it sees. If you reduce the number of particles it sees by 50 percent (caused by the new ISO target) then your particle removal rate will be lowered by the equivalent number unless you change something else. The risk is a gradual increase to previous contaminant levels (ISO 19/16/13).

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By now, organizations that have advanced reliability and maintenance programs understand the intrinsic value of lubricant cleanliness. Noria and many others have published extensively on this subject. The business case is rock solid: the cost of preventing oil from becoming dirty (exclusion and removal) is a small fraction of what machine repairs and downtime will cost down the road. The sad truth is that many asset owners are under the a false impression that their filters are doing a good job and their oils are clean enough.

Just as it is true that not all lubricants are alike, the same holds true for filters. Filter manufacturing is a very competitive and diverse industry from the standpoint of cost, quality and performance. Owners of large equipment fleets can spend well over $1 million per year on filters. Industrial plants with extensive asset lists can face a similar filtration spend. A single filter element used on a large circulating oil system can cost more than $1,000.

While there are commodity (economy grade) filters of all types to choose from, as with many products, the greater value and quality often come from selecting the premium option at the high end of the price range. Yet, most premium high-performance filters can look very similar to cheaper, lower cost filters at first glance. Published data on filter performance by their suppliers is often embellished or out-of-date. After all, a filter supplier would never publish anything other than stellar performance data, and this data is usually the product of their own laboratory.

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Just like lubricants, filters have a life expectancy, and it’s not indefinite. Users should be aware that there are certain operating conditions that can abruptly alter a filter’s performance and shorten its service life. These events can silently turn what you think is a filter into a non-filter. The unpleasant consequences of most filter failures are particles that get a free ride into sensitive machine components and frictional surfaces, leading to damage and premature failure.

Sadly, most filters used on machines and vehicles have a limited ability or no ability to alert operators and technicians to faulty performance. Some may have pressure-differential (P-D) alarms or gauges, but even these devices can only respond to a fraction of filter-related problems that may occur. Of course, the most common condition to which these P-D indicators alert is a filter that is becoming plugged or is already in bypass. However, they can’t announce warnings for a host of other problems that often contaminate downstream fluids and components.

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