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A Critical Part Of Oil And Machine Monitoring Involves Oil Analysis Testing

By Daniel Y. Scurry


You must understand as a business owner that oil analysis testing is the backbone of condition monitoring which you need to preserve the large investment that you have in your machinery. You most likely already are conscious that condition monitoring is key to proactive maintenance and prevention of expensive damage to your equipment and the dreaded downtime that can cost you big bucks in lost revenue in addition to expensive repair costs And, there is a whole lot more to condition monitoring than employing some maintenance staff to watch over your equipment and plant.

Oil analysis testing can be a very helpful early warning system of impending problems and possible malfunction that can cause equipment damage and resulting failure. In a comparison the oil analysis testing is very equivalent to blood tests that are conducted on people to provide an indication into what is, or is not, going on inside. When potential problems are discovered early, action can be taken more quickly to avoid serious damage that could happen without intervention or breakdowns that could be avoided with preventative maintenance.

Critical equipment that is costly can be monitored by oil analysis testing, which is performed by sensors that are parts of the condition monitoring program to provide early indication of possible disruptive and unpredictable failures. Responsive on-line sensors monitor oil condition, wear metal debris, water and other fluid properties. This type of system can provide constant monitoring which can supply remote logging and also provide alarm functions that are specially programmed.

Another type of oil analysis testing can be conducted is used oil analysis test kits. This is a more economical way to perform in-service condition monitoring that can monitor a wide set of critical parameters at the location site. Remote locations or those that have limited access to laboratories discover this type of testing works very well. A huge benefit of this type of testing is that timely results are created on site.

Downtime can be significantly reduced through the use of on-line sensors that supply continuous monitoring that is the most effective to determine informed planned maintenance. Gradual degradation can be trended by these sensors that observe the oil condition and detect contamination such as free water, insoluble nitration, oxidation and glycol. Extremely sensitive instruments called wear debris sensors are capable of detecting minute ferrous particles and revealing the count as well as their size. The wear process in your machinery produces ferrous and non-ferrous debris particles that provide a critical insight to the actual wear process itself.




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