The Key to Unlocking Reliability in Your Program

Everyday at POLARIS Laboratories®, we’re dedicated to helping our customers save more of their equipment. As the industry has advanced, POLARIS Laboratories® has kept up by unleashing the potential for maintenance programs everywhere. We’re achieving these results by empowering maintenance professionals, automating the information they receive and transforming untapped recommendations into business intelligence.

This Year’s Summit

We’re all on this journey together. And, we see this path leading us to greater emphasis on reliability. We know reliability is the key to solving maintenance challenges smarter and faster. That’s why this year’s Customer Summit theme is Unlock Reliability. This unique, peer-to-peer experience is designed to help your company capture and apply the elements of a successful oil analysis program, integrate data better and solve reliability challenges.

As part of the evolution of fluid analysis at our summits – Driving Action, Champion Impact, Connected Performance and Elevate – Unlock Reliability keeps our customers focused on how to turn data into information into intelligence. At the summit, more than 100 customers and partners will convene to learn how to bridge a traditional fluid analysis focus with a futuristic view of empowering the overall user experience and manage more effective maintenance programs.

Unlock Your Maintenance Potential

Whether you’re looking to huddle with companies that have proven successes, dive deeper into your program’s performance or learn best practices to design a strategy that transforms information into intelligence, our fifth-annual Customer Summit will provide the keys you need to maximize your oil analysis program and continue to drive operational performance.

We have coordinated every aspect of this event to best fit your team’s needs and ensure that you make the most out of your summit experience. Taking place in Indianapolis from November 18-20, this three-day, 19-session event offers a one-of-a-kind experience for you and your team.

Are you ready to take the next step to realizing reliability?

Check out our Customer Summit website to learn more about the robust agenda and topics, exclusive laboratory tour, hotel accommodations, fees and more. Be sure to take advantage of our early registration discounts.

Come learn why reliability matters! Clear your calendar in November and join us in Indianapolis at the 2019 POLARIS Laboratories® Customer Summit.

Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you. 

Published May 23, 2019

Celebrating 20 Years

As an innovative leader in asset management, reliability and fluid analysis, POLARIS Laboratories® celebrates two decades of accomplishments, successes and innovative solutions we’ve brought to our customers – all while continually saving their equipment.

The beginning

In 1999, we first opened our doors as an oil analysis laboratory, with a mission to provide excellence in oil testing, analysis, tribology expertise, data and recommendations. Our first laboratory was in Greenwood, Indiana and in 2002, we moved to the northwest Indianapolis area and have called that area our home since. In that time, we’ve grown from five to more than 200 employees (in seven global laboratory locations) – who strive every day to meet (and exceed) customer expectations.

20 Years in 5 Minutes

Watch the video to see highlights of our history, accomplishments and our plans for the future.

Our values

Our core values have remained the same throughout our 20 years, with an emphasis to convey to our customers that saving your equipment is more than just sending your sample into our laboratory and getting the results back. What continues to save equipment is customers using the recommendations we provide to take action, establish trend history and effectively manage their maintenance and reliability programs.

What it means

20 years of being the leading fluid analysis provider in the industry has amounted to 48,439 pieces of equipment and $253,575,289 saved for our customers. See below for a quick glance of a few POLARIS Laboratories® stats:

Looking forward

With our eyes on the future, we will continue to focus on providing our customers with the greatest quality of service, accurate and timely analysis results, specialty testing and innovative data integration solutions. We’re expanding our testing and analysis capabilities to include grease, we’re advancing our HORIZON® data management platform and we are increasing adoption of our game-changing solution for sample data automation and integration called DataConnect.

Cheers to 20 more!

View the full press release.

Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you. 

Published May 7, 2019

NEWS: POLARIS Laboratories® Celebrates Milestone

POLARIS Laboratories® Celebrates 20th Anniversary

The company announces its 20th anniversary as the industry leader in fluid analysis, maintenance and reliability services.

INDIANAPOLIS – Two decades ago, POLARIS Laboratories® opened its doors as small laboratory in Greenwood, Indiana with a focus primarily on oil analysis. Since 1999, the company has continued to provide customers with information, resources and maintenance recommendations from fluid analysis laboratory results. Now, in its 20th year as an industry-leading provider of maintenance and reliability services, POLARIS Laboratories® has advanced its testing capabilities to include coolant, diesel fuel and grease and provided innovative data management and technology solutions to meet and exceed customer expectations.

“POLARIS Laboratories® has experienced remarkable growth and development over the past two decades and we thank our customers for partnering with us,” said Bryan Debshaw, chief executive officer, POLARIS Laboratories®. “Looking toward the future, our focus will remain on offering innovative solutions, advanced specialty testing and customizable test packages for our customers to help them save more of their equipment.”

View the full press release.

Expose What’s in Your Filters

Oil filters are designed to filter out potential contaminants, but the debris that is caught in the filter can help bridge the gap and tell you what’s really causing wear and tear in your system. Filter debris analysis (FDA) analyzes that debris. It helps identify harmful contaminants and wear-causing particles and mechanisms not detected by traditional oil analysis. FDA is preformed by the following laboratory tests:

  • Analytical Ferrography
  • Micropatch
  • Elemental Metals by ICP
  • Acid Digestion
  • Gravimetric Solids

Watch the video to see how we perform FDA at POLARIS Laboratories®.

1. Analytical Ferrography

  • Identifies particles by metallic or non-metallic and shape and color
  • Analyzes particles through a microscope to determine source of wear particles
  • Digital images of particles are included within the analysis report from the data analyst

2. Micropatch

  • Particles are identified and qualified as contaminates
  • Most particles detected by the micropatch test are too small to be detected through routine testing; therefore often times, micropatch testing is recommended after oil analysis is performed.

Analytical ferrography and micropatch tests are conducted underneath a powerful microscope and are often vital in determining wear particles and contaminates not seen by the human eye and not detected by field oil analysis.

3. Elemental Metals Analysis: Detects particles less than 8-10µ and reports data on 24 elemental metals.

4. Acid Digestion: Identifies large particles accumulated in the filter.

5. Gravimetric Solids: Determines total solids in filter based on mass.

The Next Level

Filter debris analysis takes elemental analysis to the next level to determine particle size and type of wear. FDA also allows you to perform root cause analysis of wear to detect early stages of component failures and in turn, helps extend the life of your components.

Discover more about Analytical Ferrography and Micropatch testing by reading this Technical Bulletin.

Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you. 

Published May 2, 2019