Uptime Magazine - October/November 2008 - (Page 70)

upgrade Spotlighting Editor’s picks of hot products & services in the industry. What has your oil analysis been missing? It’s a good question to ponder. And while your thinking, read about the next step your lubrication program can take to protect your machinery It is an absolute given that keeping a machine’s lubricant as clean as possible is a major component in increasing that machine’s useful life. And to that end, filter technology has gotten good really good. In fact, filter technology is so good that it actually prevents many wear issues, but it also eliminates evidence of many impending problems. Of course, the filter is designed to collect debris, including wear debris created when a problem arises in your machine. So, if you are conducting your oil samples and sending them to the lab, the tests are being conducted on filtered oil. The filter is the best place to look for wear issues. That’s where Filter Debris Analysis comes in. We tracked down Alison Toms, Technical Director for GasTOPS, Inc, noted author and Chief Chemist for over 300 military labs worldwide, and Mike Barrett, VP of Marketing for Insight Services, with 15 years experience in crafting oil analysis programs for industrial companies. Filter Debris Analysis Here is what Alison and Mike had to say First, why don’t you briefly explain to us what Filter Debris Analysis actually is? Filter debris analysis (FDA) is a technique that analyzes debris captured in a machine’s oil filter. Our automated method cleans the filters, collects wear debris for x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, and counts and sizes the filter debris particles, with high repeatability and reproducibility. This method: • Identifies and quantifies the elemental and metallurgical constituents of the wear particles; • Identifies the specific components that are wearing; and • Provides improved diagnostic and prognostic information about impending failures in of fluid-wetted components. Please explain the difference in what you will pick up through Oil Analysis vs. Filter Debris Analysis. When machinery components wear abnormally, debris is shed into the lube oil system. The filter removes as much as 95% of the wear debris from the oil. Industry realized that the cleaner the oil 70 A FilterCHECK™ instrument used to conduct Filter Debris Analyisi. system, the less chance of damage caused by abrasive wear. Over the past decade there has been a move to increasingly fine filtration, making conventional monitoring techniques such as atomic emission spectroscopy and ferrography less effective at providing reliable indication of machinery component wear. Filters capture the history of component wear for the life of the filter and for the capture efficiency of the filter. Because of this, filter debris analysis provides advanced notice of impending wear problems. In the military, the warnings with FDA are 5 to 10 times earlier than with traditional oil analysis. The x-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique used to evaluate the filter debris can analyze particles of any size, from 1 micron to 1000+ microns. So the size limitations of the different atomic emission techniques - ICP (up to 5 microns), rotrode (up to 10 microns) and rotrode filter spectroscopy (up to 40 microns) – are not an issue with XRF. Another factor to consider is that debris from a fault is released in october/november 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Uptime Magazine - October/November 2008

Uptime Magazine - October/November 2008 Contents Upfront Upclose: An Asset Management Oasis in the Desert Information Technology: Streamlining Through Simplicity Lubrication: Phases for Framing a Solid Foundation Infrared: Do Your Homework Before You Buy Maintenance Management: Get It Together by Getting Together Motor Testing: Key Elements in Motor Decision Making Precision Maintenance: Shedding Some Light on Tolerances Reliability: RCM & the Mortgage Meltdown Ultrasound: A Multidimensional Tool Vibration: The Whirling Pump Mystery, Solved with ODS Upgrade: Are You Looking in the Right Place for Your Wear Debris?

Uptime Magazine - October/November 2008

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