The Secret to Making Sampling Easy

That sounds like an infomercial title, right? But it’s not often that you’ll find a product that will:
  • Make your daily life easier
  • Quickly pay for itself
  • Lower chances of contaminating your sample bottle
If this is what you’re looking to achieve, sample valves are what you want!

You won’t even need to shut off equipment to collect a sample. Valves reduce the equipment you need to use and speed up sampling by 3-7 minutes on average. All of that saved labor adds up quickly to pay for the cost of the sample valve and lower your bottom line for years to come.

But wait, there’s more…

Sample valves are installed directly into your equipment, typically in a port made by the manufacturer for this purpose. This makes it easy to access the fluid in the system while ensuring no environmental dirt or moisture contaminate the remaining fluid. The ports also allow you to extend lines to a common rail so remote reservoirs can be accessed quickly, easily, and safely.

Push-button valves use the system’s pressure so all you need is the bottle to collect a sample – ditch that pump and tubing! To ensure dirt doesn’t get in your sample bottle, order a probe-style valve and use a needle-and-cap kit to collect the cleanest sample possible.

Unpressurized systems need a little motivation to pull quality samples quickly. Probe-and-needle valves can be used with vacuum pumps for the cleanest samples possible. But what do you do when you have a large reservoir and the fluid doesn’t mix at the sides? Just install a sample valve with a pilot tube to extend into where the fluid flows.

If you have equipment, there’s a valve for you. Download this guide to learn more about sample valves.

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

Published July 29, 2020

What To Do if You Have a Coolant Leak

So, you’ve received your oil analysis report back recommending an inspection of the cooling system. (You may or may not also find an oily sheen in the cooling system.) When a lubricant report is received indicating coolant contamination, the root cause of the problem must be found and corrected.

Are you only looking at half of the data?

An internal leak will require further maintenance to be performed to correct the internal contamination, such as a possible new engine rebuild. Have you determined the root cause for the internal leak? Internal leaks are not just something that will be expected to occur at some point in your equipment life expectancy. The same could be said for concerns with your lubricant analysis report indicating higher oxidation values and not being able to optimize the lubricant drain interval. Identifying and reacting to the lubricant analysis recommendations may not always identify the root cause when only testing the oil.

Why would an internal leak or shorter drain intervals occur?

One possible reason is from overheating. Overheating will put more stress on both the lubricant and the coolant and increase acid build up to occur, causing corrosion to the metal surfaces of the engine eventually leading to soft spots. The overheating may not be found on your dashboard but the internal temperatures in the engine may still be elevated. The higher temperatures will cause stress to the lubricant resulting in oxidation and acid build up which ends up thickening the oil. At this point the oil cannot provide the adequate lubricant regime necessary to help protect the engine from wear. Having metal to metal contact will not only increase the engines internal operating temperature, it will also cause soft spots to occur causing cracks and coolant to leak into the engine. As a result this can lead to engine failures, unexpected downtime, maintenance and repair costs.

Are you regularly testing the cooling system within your equipment?

OEMs have indicated approximately 40%, if not higher, of preventable premature engine failures can be traced back to problems in the cooling system. Concerns in the cooling system may be present without a visible indicator and cooling system failures are less common. This is one reason some may not think to test their coolant. However, understanding how the cooling system functions and how the fluid properties can impact the cooling system is a critical component to the overall engine performance.

The purpose of your cooling system is to:

  1. Circulate the coolant throughout the system
  2. Remove heat from the engine
  3. Dissipate heat from the coolant

The cooling system concerns that are not corrected early will hinder the performance of the engine and eventually lead to a premature engine failure. Adding coolant testing to your fluid analysis program will help aid in catching coolant related issues and/or determine if concerns are present due to out of date maintenance procedures. Routine testing of the cooling system will provide recommendations and correction needed to maintain the cooling system and fluid properties. If concerns are not corrected or monitored then internal leaks and/or shorten lubricant drains may occur causing increased wear and damage to your equipment.

Test all fluids in your equipment

Testing all fluids within the equipment by utilizing an effective fluid analysis program will help reduce unexpected down times and/or equipment replacements – resulting in an increase return of investment (ROI). Reach out today to discuss how improve your overall fluid analysis program by testing all components in your equipment.

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

Published July 21, 2020

Get the Most Value from Your Program: Advanced Testing

Oil Analysis: The First Question

The first question of any new, or redefined oil analysis program should be, what do I want to achieve from the program? The answer to this question will determine how the program is managed, and more importantly, what testing will be performed on the samples. All samples will receive an element of three groups of testing:

  1. Wear metal assessment
  2. Contamination
  3. Fluid properties

But the depth of testing in these three groups can change, depending on what you want to achieve.

1. Wear Metals

Every oil sample tested will receive an evaluation of wear metals and elements, this is taken as standard in the industry. But the number and type of tests performed in addition to this determine what level of testing is performed, and therefore what level of information you will receive on a sample report. Many companies will go with testing the minimum, so the price per sample is lower.

Does basic testing add significant value to a program or improve reliability?

An example of this could be testing a diesel engine oil without including a base number. This means a true evaluation of the optimum oil drain interval is not possible. Another example would be testing a hydraulic oil with performing an ISO code & particle count so that the laboratory cannot assess the true cleanliness of the fluid. Both of these examples could be considered vital tests in terms of improving reliability and reducing maintenance costs, but are not always included in some basic testing programs.

2. Contamination

More importantly, monitoring and reporting actual accurate levels of contaminants present within oil samples is critical because the amount and type of contaminant present will pose a different set of problems at different levels as shown in Tables 1 and 2  below (related to acceptable levels of water contamination in oils). The majority of OEMs provide guidelines for various contaminants and acceptable levels for contamination for their specific systems. Below are a few examples of results of water contamination results and findings from standard testing compared to advanced testing methods.

  • Diesel Fuel Dilution
    • Stating that diesel fuel dilution is present in engine oil by a simple Flash Point or FTIR evaluation is not an effective method for determining contamination. Diesel dilution condemning limits stated by OEMs can range from 3% to over 5% and therefore an accurate amount of the contaminants present via Gas Chromatography in the oil (diesel in this case) is also now a pre-requisite when looking to monitor contamination levels in samples.
  • Water Contamination
    • Performing a test on an oil sample using the hot plate test method may not always able to detect the exact amount of water within the sample. An advanced test, such as Karl Fischer, would give you more accurate results, especially the lower levels of water.

Table 1

Water Content Result Reported Maintenance Action & Decision
Lab 1 result Water present Check unit for source of contamination, but as quantity of contaminant is not known, do I change oil?
Lab 2 result Water > 0.2% Check unit for source of contamination, but as definitive level of contaminant is not known do I change oil?
Lab 3 result Water = 0.35% Check unit for source of contamination, but as level is below OEM recommendation of 0.45% no oil change required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 2

Water Content Result Reported Maintenance Action & Decision
Lab 1 result Water present No problem reported, continue to monitor as normal
Lab 2 result Water <0.1% No problem reported, continue to monitor as normal
Lab 3 result Water = 432ppm Check unit for source of contamination and change oil as level is above acceptable level of 350ppm for this application.

Is it best practice to simply state that ‘water is present’, or would an accurate result in either percentage of parts per million (ppm) add significant value to maintenance decisions?

In addition, when looking at reporting the samples’ cleanliness levels via ISO code & particle count, what aids the customer more, the simple ISO code, or the code complimented with a full breakdown of the number of particles at each micron size?

ISO CODE
22/19/13
ISO CODE >4 μm >6 μm >10 μm >14 μm >21 μm >38 μm >70 μm >100 μm
22/19/13 20959 3656 340 73 22 2 0 0

3. Fluid Properties

The analysis of a lubricants’ overall condition helps determine the future health of equipment and subsequent oil changes or top-ups that may be required. Every laboratory should offer a wide range of fluid condition analysis services based on the machinery that the oil has been sampled from. These tests are a great barometer for the overall condition of the component and the actual lubricant itself. Performing testing on condition is not only an economically viable option, but it should be considered standard for any oil sample. In today’s cost-conscious climate and increased environmentally concerned conditions, extending lubricant life will help decrease costs and protect the environment from early lubricant disposal.

Including Base Number and Acid Number on an engine oil sample and Acid Number alone on industrial oils paired with the utilization of advanced data analysis and interpretation systems makes it possible to make a judgement on how much further an organization can safely extend an oil drain – if the correct parameters are being monitored and the associated recommendations are being followed. These services are not always included in some basic testing programs – this means you could be missing out on significant savings if these are ignored – both financial and environmental.

Any testing is better than none, but upgrading your samples to a more advanced testing will add significant value, proactively improve reliability and save more equipment.

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

Published July 9, 2020