Despite the good intentions of many organizations, real improvements in contamination control often remain an elusive concept. They know that invisible particles are one of the largest single contributors to progressive wear of machinery. Yet with each passing year, no significant enhancements in maintenance practices resulting in greater fluid cleanliness are implemented. With today’s selection of IoT fluid monitoring systems and free, practical advice for contamination control practices, no plant should let contamination run rampant any longer.

After all, being “generally clean” does not result in incremental reliability improvements. Only higher levels of cleanliness accomplish this. No improvement in contamination control means no reduction in particle-induced machine wear and failure. Unlike invisible particles, a failed machine in need of repair is a tangible task with an immediate tangible result; that is, the machine returns to operation. Yet, most of us have been taught that problem solving (reactive maintenance) should always be subordinate to problem prevention (proactive maintenance). It’s amazing how knowing is often not doing.

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Analysis of hydraulic fluids, if done properly, can suggest maintenance procedures to improve hydraulic equipment reliability and extend system life. Significant cost savings can result. Where to take a sample There are two types of fluid sampling: static and dynamic. Static sampling involves extracting a fluid sample from a reservoir or a dead zone, where there is slight fluid movement. Little useful information is gained from static sampling because: • contaminant concentration gradients exist within static fluids. Water and particles tend to segregate and settle due to gravity. Therefore, samples taken from different sections within the static container yield completely different results, and • particles from reservoirs may describe system histories, but provide little information on what is happening now. Large reservoir volumes dampen out dynamic changes and conditions within the system.

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Plainly stated, the burgeoning cost of maintenance is a serious business problem. According to DuPont, “maintenance is the largest single controllable expenditure in a plant: in many companies it often exceeds annual net profit.” One major U.S. automotive manufacturer has a maintenance staff of between 15,000 and 18,000, all plants combined. They say “85% to 90% is crisis work” (breakdown).

While preventive maintenance, when well implemented, has been shown to produce savings in excess of 25 percent, beyond that its benefit quickly approaches a point of diminishing return. According to a Forbes Magazine study, one out of every three dollars spent on preventive maintenance is wasted. A major overhaul facility reports that “60 percent of hydraulic pumps sent in for rebuild had nothing wrong with them.” These inefficiencies are the result of maintenance performed in accordance with a schedule (guess work) as opposed to the machine’s true condition and need.

Most recently, predictive maintenance (also known as condition monitoring) has been leading the way to additional savings over preventive maintenance. The use of real time or portable instruments such as vibration monitors, thermography, ferrography, etc. has been effective at recognizing the symptoms of impending machine failure. The major benefit is the availability of an earlier warning, from a few hours to a few days, which reduces the number of breakdown “catastrophic” failures. Predictive maintenance is usually implemented concurrently with preventive maintenance and targets both the warning signs of impending failure and the recognition of small failures that begin the chain reaction that leads to big failures (i.e., damage control).

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Optical particle counters (OPC’s) have a long history of use in industrial hydraulic applications. Traditionally, their success has been limited to scientific laboratories and other highly controlled environments. However, in recent years, attempts have been made to apply the use of OPC’s to the particle counting of used hydraulic fluids and industrial lubricants. As a result, serious concerns have been raised regarding the accuracy and reliability of OPC’s in such applications. The objective of this bulletin is to present important facts from reliable and documented sources for the general benefit of existing or prospective users of OPC’s. As particle counting moves into the mainstream of machine condition monitoring, users must have reliable information to identify and select appropriate technologies.

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It has been extensively documented and widely stated that particle contamination is the number one cause of wear and failure of hydraulic components. The problem is generally more pronounced than in other types of machinery incorporating circulating systems that use sirnjlar types of oils. This heightened contaminant sensitivity is due to the high pressures and tight tolerances which are characteristic of modern hydraulic machines. Pressure is known to have a disproportionate effect on contaminant sensitivity.

Much has been learned in the past three decades about contamination control at both a laboratory research level as well as the real-world deployment of this knowledge in machinery-intensive industries. Case studies have flourished on the practical and economic benefits of maintaining hydraulic systems and fluids at extreme levels of cleanliness. Hence, the speculation is gone relating to the business case and strategies that produce savings and benefits to user organizations. For many owners of hydraulic systems the opportunities of planned cleanleness are like low-hanging fruit that is ripe for picking. This chapter summarizes this body of knowledge and the value-producing strategies needed to control particle contamination in hydraulic fluids.

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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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For years Noria has been saying, “The cost of excluding a gram of dirt is probably only about 10 percent of what it will cost you once it gets into your oil.” Recently, a Noria training client asked us to document proof of this statement.

It reminds me of a widely used quote from Benjamin Franklin: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Or another familiar one: “Pay me now or a whole lot more later.” Proactively investing in reliability and machine wellness is very often challenged by the need to justify. Management is always asking for financial analysis and to “make the business case.”

Conversely, a financial study rarely is produced to obtain funds to repair a failed machine, especially when plant production has stalled. Sadly, I’ve heard maintenance folks say that they’ve quit trying to propose proactive measures to management. They claim it’s easier to just let the machines fail.

This is like saying it’s easier to just wait until you have a heart attack than to proactively make the lifestyle changes needed to avoid heart disease (diet, fitness, quit smoking, etc.). These differences are often deeply ingrained in management and business culture. Does your organization have the “here and now” folks or those who “plan and prepare?”

On the bright side, an increasing number of companies are led by managers who do “get it.” Much of this has been driven by the growing base of documented success stories from organizations and program leaders who have championed change and happily reported their results. They didn’t need to be beaten over the head but rather took the initiative and captured the benefit.

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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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Users of hydraulic equipment need to know how clean their fluid should be. The information and procedure for determining this has not been readily available in the past. This has been largely due to the many factors· that impinge on the decision. This paper introduces a new· system called the Contaminant Life Index (figure 1) which deals with this question head on. The Contaminant Life Index addresses each of the many issues involved in determining required system cleanliness. These factors are presented in a simple, easy to follow format. The CLI delineates only the most salient criteria with the objective to span the numerous diverse types of hydraulic equipment in use.

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To some contamination control might seem a little like an old tune. After all, hasn’t filtration been around nearly as long as lubrication? And, what’s new that hasn’t already been thoroughly explored and widely applied? For one, when it comes to cleanliness, knowing is definitely not doing. Many maintenance professionals know oil should be clean but the use of filtration and contamination control lacks rigor and discipline. Why? Hidden behind steel plates, within the dark interior of our machine, the particles of dirt move about like a microscopic wrecking crew–invisible to the outside world. Even within a sample bottle they are too small to see. The dirt effectively is “out of sight” and therefore, usually also, “out of mind.” People don’t respond to what they don’t see. As in most cases, embedded in the problem one finds the solution, or rather, opportunity. Simply stated, how do we turn the unseen into the seen?

For many world class organizations, when it comes to battling invisible particles, the preferred weapon is the invisible filter- a.k.a., the particle counter. Why is a particle counter called an invisible filter? Because it has the remarkable ability to change behavior. The old saying, “what gets measured gets done” says it well. Everything else left the same, the frequent use of a particle counter, with conspicuous reporting of results, often leads to an amazing downward trend in contamination.

Why? Because people are reacting to the feedback, by slowly altering past practices. When combined with education, little things and big things alike are done differently. For instance, greater care and attention is given to lubricant storage, cleanliness of oil cans and top-up containers is controlled, transfer systems are fitted with filters, tank hatches are sealed tightly, and breathers and filters are serviced regularly. In sum, the best filter is the unneeded filter, the invisible filter, the particle counter. So, take the time to learn from the experience of others and develop a plan to emulate proven successes. To the astute, opportunity-seeking student of machine reliability, there are very few lessons so important. Class dismissed.

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Process plants and manufacturing companies have machinery lubricated by mineral-based or synthetic fluids and other machinery powered by lower viscosity hydraulic fluids. We define equipment of this type as fluid-dependent systems. Examples of this include gear boxes, process pumps, gas compressors, speed reducers, blowers, hydraulic metal working machines and machine tools.

When machines have wear, corrosion and associated problems that eventually lead to corrective action, we categorize these problems as internal state failures. Often, equipment operates infrequently, under very low loads, and away from the main production processes. In such cases, it may be perfectly acceptable to operate this equipment with scheduled maintenance activities or simply on a breakdown basis.

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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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Condition monitoring can be easily performed by following a few simple principles. Among these principles include monitoring two sets of conditions:

1. The operating and environmental conditions that precede failure, and
2. Early-stage failure symptoms

Several models are presented that show the benefits of monitoring machine conditions, as well as the consequences of ignoring them . Also discussed is the integration of both proactive and predictive maintenance techniques to extend machine life.

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It can take just one breakdown of a critical machine to spin an entire plant into an immediate production halt. At this point, it is too late for the plant manager to do anything but call a service technician, then gasp for air while counting the lost production.

Each time a breakdown occurs, a manager vows to begin a rigid maintenance program as soon as time and money permits. But that never happens. Sound familiar?

With all of the attention maintenance advances have received in recent years in the trade press and through technical shows and conferences, it is hard to imagine that any lant would not have implemented an improved maintenance program. Yet advanced maintenance techniques commonly are neglected. Selecting a program that fits the needs of a particular plant environment can be a difficult task.

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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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Filtration has two primary objectives. The first objective is “protective”. This refers to creating a barrier to protect particle-sensitive machine components from the invasion of contaminants capable of causing sudden-death machine failure. Machines that have high mission criticality from the standpoint of safety, lost production and/or repair cost are good candidates for protective filtration. Such filters are located just upstream of sensitive components. Many components don’t require wear in order to fail, but they can experience critical loss of performance due to motion impediment and/or flow blockage caused by the intrusion of particles of a particular size and composition. Servo-controlled electro-hydraulic valves are examples of such components that benefit from protective filtration.

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According to major industries throughout the world, it’s time to throw out your old ideas on machine maintenance. The costsaving trend is toward a maintenance program that targets the root causes of machine wear and failure. Predictive and preventive methods are out: pro-active maintenance is in.

Why? Because proactive maintenance methods are currently saving industries of all sizes thousands, even millions of dollars on machine maintenance every year. This concept of saving large amounts on maintenance, however, may be tough for some to grasp.

According to DuPont, “maintenance is the largest single controllable expenditure in a plant: In many companies it often exceeds annual net profit.”‘ Add to this the fact that up to 90% of some companies’ maintenance work involves expensive (and productivity-killing) breakdown repair, and you can easily see the predicament. The problem of costly maintenance has truly reached a serious level, but as some companies have found out, and more come to realize every day, their maintenance costs can be cut drastically by establishing a “proactive” line of defense.

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This was one of those defining moments. It was some surprising insight on where maintenance and reliability professionals are in the journey to lubrication excellence.

I received a phone call from a stranger who introduced himself as a maintenance manager of a large steel mill. He told me he was preparing to teach a group of lube techs about how and when to perform an oil change on mill machinery. However, he first wanted my advice.

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Recently, maintenance managers and corporate executives have shown a greater interest in rising maintenance costs and failure rates. The realization of the need to curb these costs has logically brought about the field of proactive maintenance. This is a program that concentrates on minimizing downtime and maximizing machine life.

This paper discusses proactive contamination control for hydraulic and lubricating systems and describes its three step implementation process. Proactive maintenance begins with establishing appropriate cleanliness targets for each individual machine pursuant to machine specific criteria. This step sets the goal or benchmarks for each machine. The second step involves the process of selecting and implementing contaminant removal devices such as filters and separators necessary to” achieve the specified target cleanliness level. The final step is the routine monitoring of machine cleanliness at frequencies based on the previously established cleanliness target and the application conditions. This final step closes the loop and insures that “control” of fluid contaminant levels is achieved.

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This past year Practicing Oil Analysis featured many end-user case studies documenting cost savings from oil analysis. Surprisingly, the majority of these studies describe the partnering of oil analysis with contamination control*. In this issue is yet another case study, by Weyerhaeuser, deploying this same strategic combination. It is unlikely that these are random events but rather a well-defined pattern. If so, exactly what is this lesson and what is its meaning to machine reliability?

To some it might seem a little like an old tune. After all, hasn’t filtration been around nearly as long as lubrication? And, what’s new that hasn’t already been thoroughly explored and widely applied? For one, when it comes to cleanliness, knowing is definitely not doing. Many maintenance professionals know oil should be clean but the use of filtration and contamination control lacks rigor and discipline. Why?

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