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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There is a price tag for removing dirt from oil. For large plants and fleets operating in dusty environments, the cost can be substantial – hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Of course we all know that contamination control is optional, like dental hygiene – we don’t have to brush all our teeth, only those we want to keep.

That said, where quality filtration is needed, we still have a few options to get the most cleanliness for the fewest filtration dollars. After all, throwing money at the problem doesn’t take brilliance; however, achieving oil cleanliness at economy rates is the domain of the astute maintenance professional.

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