Spectro Scientific Blog

Monitoring turbines with oil analysis is well known and well established. All turbines, both steam and gas, have a large oil reservoir to lubricate the turbine bearings. Older designs had separate sumps for the hydraulic control of valves, whereas newer designs may have the lube oil and hydraulic sump linked together. Power plant operators new to oil analysis can be easily confused about what all the tests are. Fortunately, the industry has developed umbrella specifications for power plant lubrication monitoring, such as ASTM D4378 and ASTM D6224, and these define almost every test used to qualify lubricants for new and in-service monitoring for power plants.  

Oil analysis was first employed on engines as a predictive maintenance tool, and it remains a predominant technique for insuring the reliability of engine systems. Reciprocating internal combustion engines power most of the world's mobile equipment, such as cars, trucks, buses, locomotives, mining equipment, agricultural equipment and are also common in stationary backup power generators, oil and gas exploration rigs, and pipeline compression stations.  

 

 

 

 

 

Oil analysis is a very useful tool for gear systems. Geared systems are found across both mobile and industrial equipment. Though they are designed to be very reliable, they cause a lot of disruption and costs when they wear or break due to poor operation or contamination. Oil analysis is a great tool to detect when failure conditions are developing, and as such most gear manufacturers suggest condition monitoring, including oil analysis.

In this issue:

MicroLab Version 11 software - simplified reports, improved performance

FieldLab 58 - Improved X-ray module, new patent, new ASTM method

Case Study - City Fleet Saves $2M by Safely Extending Oil Drain Intervals

New E-guide - Ferrous Wear Measurement

A large municipality in the northwestern United States operates over 1,700 vehicles and over 3,000 pieces of motorized equipment ranging from riding lawn mowers to bulldozers. Oil changes constitute a major expense. For example, the 500 heavy duty trucks in its fleet previously had their oil changed every 2,500 miles at a cost of around $400 per change. Assuming that each truck is driven 40,000 miles per year, total oil changes on these vehicles alone cost over $3 million per year. By using oil analysis to track oil condition, the City now performs oil changes only when necessary and has reduced their total oil change costs for these vehicles to below $1 million per year. Substantial savings have also been achieved on other types of vehicles and equipment. Furthermore, the City has achieved considerable but unmeasurable savings by identifying serious problems in oil analysis and fixing them before they cause a catastrophic failure.

Rotating Disc Electrode Optical Emission Spectroscopy (RDE-OES)

Spectrometers that look at the multitude of spectral lines from a heated , or “excited,” sample are called optical emission spectrometers. All optical emission spectrometers consist of three main components.

Introduction

The basis of modern oil analysis programs is the use of optical emission spectroscopy (OES) to measure the ppm (parts per million) levels of wear metals, contaminants, and additives in oil samples. Whatever an oil lab may need to measure, multi-elemental analysis is the core of an in-service oil analysis program. This paper gives an overview of Rotating Disc Electrode Optical Emission Spectroscopy (RDE-OES), its applications, and the SpectrOil Series family of products, which combine the latest innovations for increased performance and reliability with 30+ years of experience in military and laboratory applications.

The FerroCheck 2100 now analyzes grease

No solvents, no sample prep

Want to extend equipment lifetime and prevent costly failures due to wear particles? Large ferrous particles in oil and grease can often be the first indicators of a severe wear condition in rotating equipment and engines. Trending ferrous content in oil and grease allows maintenance professionals to intervene before a catastrophic failure occurs. Please watch our video below to see how the FerroCheck now works on grease sample.

With a motto of “Always Ready,” the United States Coast Guard (USCG) has 11 missions specified by law including drug and migrant interdiction; ports, waterways and coastal security; fishery patrols; search and rescue; and national defense. The USCG’s newest ships include 22 Fast Response Cutters (FRCs) which recently entered service, and 36 more are currently on order. Additionally, the Coast Guard has six new National Security Cutters (NSCs) and two more are being built. Oil analysis plays a critical role in the mission readiness of these new cutters by alerting engineers to problems with the potential to damage vital equipment and by helping them efficiently deploy
scarce resources to critical maintenance activities.