Oil analysis is a routine activity for analyzing oil health, oil contamination and machine wear. The purpose of an oil analysis program is to verify that a lubricated machine is operating according to expectations. When an abnormal condition or parameter is identified through oil analysis, immediate actions can be taken to correct the root cause or to mitigate a developing failure.
Why Perform Oil Analysis
An obvious reason to perform oil analysis is to understand the condition of the oil, but it is also intended to help bring to light the condition of the machine from which the oil sample was taken. There are three main categories of oil analysis: fluid properties, contamination and wear debris.
Contamination
By detecting the presence of destructive contaminants and narrowing down their probable sources (internal or external), oil analysis can help answer questions such as:
- Is the oil clean?
- What types of contaminants are in the oil?
- Where are contaminants originating?
- Are there signs of other types of lubricants?
- Is there any sign of internal leakage?
Wear Debris
This form of oil analysis is about determining the presence and identification of particles produced as a result of mechanical wear, corrosion or other machine surface degradation. It answers questions relating to wear, including:
- Is the machine degrading abnormally?
- Is wear debris produced?
- From which internal component is the wear likely originating?
- What is the wear mode and cause?
- How severe is the wear condition?
Our basic preventative maintenance package is designed to provide early detection of:
- Problems in the initial stages of development
- Excessive wear and the source of that component’s wear
- Unwanted contaminants, such as dirt, water, coolant, nitration, and incorrect oil
- The lubricant’s suitability for further service time, i.e. oil and equipment degradation
- Dilution of lubricants
- Misapplication of lubricants
- The oil’s physical properties
Companies that take oil analysis to the next level concentrate on root cause analysis. Equipment diagnosis and evaluating test results consists of looking at both the health of the equipment and the integrity of the oil. Trending of the test data over a period of time is a valuable tool to monitor ongoing equipment condition and allows you to predict corrective action before interruption to operations or increased maintenance costs occur.
Effective trending analysis will minimize equipment downtime, permit more efficient maintenance scheduling, protect warranty claims, and increase equipment resale value.
Feedback from our loyal clients has one thing in common, knowledge about what was happening inside their equipment and early problem detection forewarned them about potential problems, saved them time and money, and helped them protect their assets.