Oil contamination may be defined as any foreign material found in the lubricant which is not added by design. Usually, contaminants are not beneficial, and may be detrimental, to the performance of the oil and/or the operating machinery. Contamination is a significant root cause of machine and lubricant degradation and failure. Often overlooked as a source of failure because its impact is usually slow and imperceptible, contamination is both a significant threat to reliability and quality efforts, and an opportunity because improvements are very attainable1. Research on an array of fluid dependent machinery such as bearings and rotating equipment, hydraulic systems, gearboxes, and diesel engines, clearly supports that often machine reliability is a function of contamination control.

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It has been proven that almost all mechanical failures are caused by contamination; hard particle contamination to be ·specific. Once the root cause of machine failure has been defined, a program to correct these failures, extend machine life, and reduce maintenance costs must be developed. Such a program has been developed; it is called Proactive Maintenance.

Proactive maintenance is a three-step program that begins with the individual mechanical equipment and setting target cleanliness levels (benchmarks). The second phase deals with the system design, adequate filtration, and contamination exclusion techniques. The final step involves system monitoring. This process of continual monitoring is to ensure fluid and system cleanliness.

This paper is directed toward companies and manufacturers that have an interest in an efficient, cost effective maintenance program. To achieve total maintenance excellence, one must start at the beginning by taking an aggressive approach to maintenance technology.

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Oil contamination can be defined as any foreign material found in the lubricant which is not added by design. Usually, contaminants are not beneficial and may even be detrimental to the performance of the oil and/or operating machinery. Contamination is the root cause of a high proportion of machine and lubricant degradation and failure. Often overlooked as a source of failure because its impact is usually slow and imperceptible, contamination is both a significant threat to reliability and quality efforts but at the same time also an opportunity, because improvements are very attainable. Research on an array of fluid dependent machinery, such as bearings and rotating equipment, hydraulic systems, gearboxes, diesel engines, turbines, clearly supports the idea that very often machine reliability is a function of contamination control.

Particles, moisture, heat, air, glycol and fuel are all contaminants found in industrial lubricants. Particles and moisture are especially common and typically present the greatest risk to machine reliability and lubricant performance. Particles and moisture, either acting alone or in unison, lead to fluid oxidation, additive depletion, viscosity failure and loss of lubricity, especially where heat is present. Once the fluid’s lubricating qualities are degraded they no longer provide the ‘cushion’ between moving machine surfaces. Because the fluid can no longer perform as it was designed, wear and ultimate failure ensue.

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With the widespread use of plant-level particle counters, maintenance organizations are becoming more sophisticated and skilled in the management and control of oil cleanliness. This has led to the discovery of a host of new tactics and practices that involve combining the particle counter with other important onsite oil analysis tools and methods.

Contamination can be defined as any unwanted substance or energy that enters or contacts the oil. Contaminants can appear in many forms, and can be highly destructive to the oil, its additives and machine surfaces. It is often overlooked as a source of failure because its impact is usually slow and imperceptible yet, given time, the damage is analogous to eating up the machine from the inside out. While it is not practical to attempt to eradicate contamination from in-service lubricants, control of contaminant levels within acceptable limits can be accomplished and is vitally important.

Contaminants such as particles, moisture, soot, heat, air, glycol, fuel, detergents and process fluids are commonly found in industrial lubricants and hydraulic fluids. However, particle contamination is typically recognized as the most destructive to the oil and machine, which explains why the particle counter is the most widely used instrument in oil analysis today. Additionally, the central strategy to its success in reducing maintenance costs and increasing machine reliability is proactive maintenance.

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Machinery Lubrication Magazine

When you throw a rock in a lake, it goes down – fast. Wear particles are heavier than rocks of the same size, often four to five times heavier. Of course, the heavier the object, the faster it falls. Oil is viscous, and this resistance can slow down the rate objects fall, but it doesn’t come close to stopping them.

The rate at which objects fall in viscous fluids is described by Stokes’ law. In sum, (1) the larger the object, (2) the heavier the object (density), (3) the thinner the fluid (lower viscosity), (4) the lower the density of the fluid (oil has extremely low density), the faster the object falls. Conversely, small, low-density objects in highly viscous fluids settle more slowly.

In oil analysis, this is critical because you want to know about the particles in your oil – all of the particles, including those that can damage machines and those that reveal damage has already occurred and is continuing to occur. Not much in oil analysis is more important than this.

This article will address two common oil analysis-related problems that sadly are often dismissed by both users and laboratories. These problems are sampling oil from machines at rest (oil not circulating) and failing to properly resuspend particles just prior to analysis.

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The practice of transferring suspended particles to the surface of a membrane for analysis has been around for decades. It is perhaps the earliest method for inspecting solid contaminants and wear debris in a used sample of oil. It is of no surprise that these methods have enduring use today. In fact, some are the basis of recently adopted standardized methods by ASTM and ISO.

While membrane-based procedures for preparing particles for analysis can be time consuming and messy (usually involving the use of glassware and solvents), the benefits can be substantial compared to alternative methods. The main advantage is the ability to both quantitatively and qualitatively describe particle contamination, depending on the method used. As in the case of microscopic particle counting, you see what you’re counting and can confirm visually what appears to be a particle. You can also characterize particle type (e.g., dirt, wear debris, rust, fibers, etc.).

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Without the lens of a microscope, bacteria and viruses might only be recognized as painful symptoms of sickness and disease by those who are infected. Just as technology is an important enabler in human pathology, it also serves in the detection and diagnosis of a host of machine health issues, including the invasion of lubricant contamination.

However, for most machinery maintainers, the threat posed by fluid contamination runs contrary to human intuition. Just like a viral infection, in lubrication, it’s what we can’t see that hurts us most. The naked eye is generally blind to the destructive potential of most types of contaminants. In fact, none of our “unaided” human senses can be relied upon to detect and recognize significant concentrations of contamination.

When I first entered the oil analysis field in the 1980s, portable and user-level oil analysis technology was years ahead of its time. This is not so today. Contaminant monitoring instruments have advanced rapidly in the past two decades as has the awareness of its importance. What was previously only the domain of analytical chemists is now an essential maintenance tool available to field technicians and condition monitoring specialists. Thankfully, the “now generation” is largely a population of sophisticated consumer electronics users who also have an insatiable appetite for instant information.

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Equipment maintenance costs represent an unclaimed gold mine of savings opportunities. Yet deep maintenance cost reductions have evaded the efforts of even the most diligent and sophisticated operations. Why? Because there has been a general lack of emphasis on maintenance that corrects root causes, as opposed to responding to the symptoms or results of failure.

A shift in maintenance philosophy is needed, one that targets life extension and avoids the onset of component degradation.

The philosophy must not be reactive but proactive. A true proactive maintenance program must stabilize healthy, non-degrading, non-decaying, operating conditions by always being ahead of the first indication of failure.

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