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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In recent years, I’ve been part of numerous investigations relating to expensive machine failures preceded by oil samples that registered high particle counts. Each time I asked the asset owner, my client, why the aberrant particle trends were not investigated further. In most cases the response was that they didn’t think it merited the extra effort or they didn’t know how to probe further for more information.

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We’ve all seen them. Perhaps some of us daily. Many take on a certain beauty, almost like a natural cave formation or a work of art. Most have organic characteristics like mosses or algae.

Dust cakes need airborne dust and oil to feed their growth. Some get their oil from escaping headspace mist, while others extract oil themselves from adjacent grease by a slow, sucking action (capillary forces) within the cake. Leaking oil from machine case joints and seams can lead to enveloping dust cakes too. The available supply of oil and dust determines the growth rate and the wrath they can impart.

No one enjoys removing and cleaning this muck, which is often why dust cakes continue to grow. We see them but we don’t see them, like a dirty smudge on a carpet. After a while, they get subconsciously blocked from our view and concern. Of course, such blindness feeds a lethargic and dismissive culture that is contrary to any serious reliability effort.

If dust cakes are a common sight in your plant, that may indicate that a more robust lubrication program is needed. A good place to start to turn things around is to understand the real danger of doing nothing or deferring corrective actions. After all, there is a devil within these dust cakes.

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