Adding one or more components to your equipment list in HORIZON® is easy! Making sure your equipment list is up-to-date is essential for your program to be a success. Check out the our new video for step-by-step instructions on how to add and edit your equipment in HORIZON.
Click to watch
Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you.
In the construction industry, we see harsh operating conditions, extreme load variations and high-dollar costs with equipment replacement. That’s why fluid analysis a key to meeting the high demands of your customers – on schedule.
Construction equipment is often exposed to extreme, uncontrollable environmental factors for long periods of time, yet is still expected to maintain optimal performance levels. Contamination and wear are imminent and can halt production in a heartbeat, when left unchecked.
Monitoring the condition of both the fluid and the unit through fluid analysis identifies wear-causing contaminants and their effect on component performance. Monitoring the condition of coolant along with engine oil creates a clearer picture of what’s occurring in the engine. Sampling frequency should be based on the unit’s criticality to production, as well as the costs involved in replacement or repair.
Read more about our solutions and testing recommendations for the construction industry:
Maximize asset reliability and regain control of your production schedules with an effective fluid analysis program by POLARIS Laboratories®. It costs so little to protect so much.
Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Watch the video to see highlights of our history, accomplishments and our plans for the future.
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.
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:
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!
Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you.
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:
Watch the video to see how we perform FDA at POLARIS Laboratories®.
1. Analytical Ferrography
2. Micropatch
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.
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.
We live in a connected world. Our daily lives involve hundreds of interactions with data and technology so why should your fluid analysis program be any different? How you submit samples, receive results, manage test data and take action on maintenance recommendations will determine your program’s ROI. In turn, this affects the uptime and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the equipment you operate.
We are all going through a technological revolution, so it is more important than ever to understand how our devices and The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) can be integral to your fluid analysis program.
From a maintenance management perspective, viewing oil analysis results from an individual machine on the same screen as its vibration readings and data from sensors allows the engineer to react quicker to the recommendations, assess the bigger picture and understand that one set of results confirms another. This creates huge efficiencies and results in smarter, more accurate maintenance actions being performed. In turn, it leads to improved uptime, an increase in ROI returns and a reduction in the Total Cost of Ownership of the equipment being monitored.
POLARIS Laboratories® has joined the technology revolution and is helping you get there, too. With our integration feature, DataConnect, internal data systems communicate and transfer your sample data and results back and forth on an hourly basis from HORIZON® so your own CMMS or SAP system is accurate, up-to-date and in the correct format at all times.
Most CMMS or maintenance management programs are utilized at point of application during daily plant walk-rounds, in sample taking or planned maintenance actions. This means there is a growing requirement to integrate the sample taking procedure into your internally-operated system to reduce the number of applications and processes used.
Your system working in conjunction with the laboratory’s system will enable you to use your own software to submit samples and ensure that the information is as accurate as possible (as with our mobile app) and performing all the duties in a ‘single screen’. Knowing when a sample should be taken and receiving the notification is vital for improving compliance and optimizing your fluid analysis program. In addition, having all of this information in a single program not only adds value to the program, but creates huge efficiencies in daily maintenance and reliability tasks.
Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you.
40 to 50 percent of preventable premature engine failures can be traced back to problems in the cooling system
The majority of those failures are due to issues in the cooling system that can be identified early with coolant sampling
Have you lost an engine and wish you could have caught the problem before the point of no return? Or better yet, what if you could determine the root cause all together? Adding coolant testing to your existing program can do exactly that.
Only monitoring the lubricant provides a limited view of a much bigger picture.
Research has found that when physicians take a whole body approach, their patients heal faster, have a higher success rate, and have a more favorable response to a prescribed medication or therapy. In thinking about our equipment, we should take a similar approach. If you are not testing your coolant, you are ignoring half the patient and half the problems.
As engine metallurgy and design have become more advanced and the demand for increased fuel efficiency and emission’s, engine operating temperatures have increased more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 50 years. This puts a greater emphasis on maintaining the thermal loads placed on the modern cooling systems.
Some common issues that can be detected and addressed with coolant testing include:
1. Identifying incorrect glycol concentration
There are many causes for the glycol concentration to not be at the proper ratio. Some of the common causes include system top offs with water or coolant concentrate, loss of water due to boil off from a defective pressure cap, and/or flush water left in the system. When glycol concentration is not at the proper ratio per OEM specification problems occur including coolant and engine block freezing, seal damage, and/or overheating. This reduces the life of the lubricant and may cause premature engine failure.
2. Are your pH levels out of specification?
Monitoring the coolant pH levels will indicate early concerns within the cooling system. An engine coolant’s acceptable pH level varies depending upon the coolant formulation. Issues that may arise when pH is out of specification include corrosion of iron components and other metals which often results in pitting of engine liners. Also, corrosives will attack the EGR coolers, or any other cooler in the system. The problem is exacerbated when corrosion protection inhibitors drop out of solution which causes plugging and inadequate coolant flow. When coolant cannot properly circulate, heat cannot be removed efficiently from the engine and the lubricant degrades more quickly resulting in shorter drain intervals.
3. Inadequate corrosion protection inhibitors
The purpose of corrosion protection inhibitors are to maintain pH, prevent foaming and prevent internal metal surfaces from corroding. When corrosion exists in the cooling system heat will not be efficiently removed. Additionally, a corrosive environment will attack most solder joints causing holes and leaks in the system. These leaks will in themselves cause secondary issues including internal coolant boiling, contamination, and adverse chemical reactions.
4. Find sources of contamination
There are many possible sources of contamination which cause damage to the cooling system and ultimately the engine. For our purposes, we will focus on the most preventable source: water, which is used to dilute coolant concentrate or top-off the system. Using water that does not meet ASTM and/or OEM manufacturer’s specifications will increase scale formation and corrosion potential within the cooling system. Even ‘clean’ tap water may contain magnesium, calcium, sulfate or chloride in levels that are harmful for the equipment. Scale forms where the greatest amount of heat transfer is needed and acts as an insulator resulting in overheating and engine damage.
If you want to learn more about adding water to your cooling system, check out our video here.
5. Detect early failure
Coolant testing can indicate combustion gas leaks, air leaks, glycol degradation, electrical issues and contaminants. Each issue will cause chemical reactions within the cooling system, resulting in failure. With early detection, scheduled down time for repairs can be made. Correcting the issue will help prevent complete engine failure or unexpected downtime.
Corrosion occurs at a slower rate than engine wear. This is why engine failures occur more frequently but are often traced back to issues within the cooling system. The cooling system must be able to circulate coolant, remove heat from the system and dissipate the heat in order to function correctly. When the cooling system is not able to circulate or remove the heat effectively, we will see reduced life of the lubricant, increased engine wear, and/or issues with system components, which often result in premature engine failure.
Coolant Test Descriptions
See all possible coolant testing, how the testing is performed and what it can tell you about your system:
Basic and Advanced Testing
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).
Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you.
One of the greatest benefits of effective reliability practices is the impact on the total cost of ownership for equipment. There are many obvious savings, such as increased production, uptime and lower maintenance costs. Unfortunately, once a piece of equipment is out of the design phase, there is a fixed upper limit to the level of reliability that can be achieved without modifying components of the equipment. That doesn’t mean that once you’ve made the investment, you are powerless to do anything to improve reliability. Oil analysis can give you information that may be used to influence OEM designs and your future purchases.
Oil analysis can provide insights to influence decisions
A customer participating in oil analysis has a mixed fleet of on-highway trucks and used the HORIZON® Problem Summary Report to compare their different engine manufacturers. They found that an OEM was showing a high percentage of samples with coolant contamination issues. They reviewed their various models of engines from the OEM and found that one specific model was the biggest culprit, with 15 percent of all samples showing at least the beginning signs of coolant ingression.
The customer provided the engine OEM with the findings from the maintenance observations recorded in their CMMS as well as the data from the problem summary report. The OEM reviewed the data, realized that they had an issue and began investigating the EGR cooler design. The OEM redesigned the EGR cooler which reduced coolant ingression issues to less than 5 percent.
In this example, in addition to oil analysis reducing downtime for the customer, reliability was improved for all users of that engine. Warranty costs for the OEM were reduced and the communication with the customer and subsequent research will also improve future engine design.
Would you rather be in a cycle of warranty claims and repairs or do you change your mindset regarding reliability?
Accepting failures and predictive maintenance as a part of normal operation and having maintenance personnel focused on repairs rather than upkeep will keep you from having a truly reliable operation.
Talk to our experts at POLARIS Laboratories® today to find out how we can help you harness the full potential of your data.
Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you.
At POLARIS Laboratories®, we strive to continue to provide our customers with advancements and improvements to our data management platforms – to make it easier to manage data. In the past few months, we’ve released a number of updates to the HORIZON® data management website, mobile application and our DataConnect integration feature.
HORIZON Updates
DataConnect Updates
To further integrate automation with asset management and maintenance systems, an update to our our DataConnect service will soon include the ability to add, update, and transfer your equipment data. This update is currently in testing and expected to be released soon. If you are interested in learning more about this feature, please contact us.
Download or update your HORIZON app below:
Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you.
Grease: a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Most lubrication fundamentals are fairly well understood in this day and age. There are plenty of websites with documentation on topics ranging through a variety of lubricating systems and analysis. There are even a lot of manufacturers, laboratories and literature on the key points and fundamentals of the variety of other fluids used today, such as fuels, solvents and even coolants.
However, one area that is still shrouded in mystery to most: Grease.
Grease: A History
A semi-solid lubricant, grease generally it consists of a soap, emulsified with an oil, (though clays are used in place of the soap in some extreme temperature applications). Some of the first recorded applications were used by the Egyptians and the Romans, thousands of years ago, though modern greases really came about during World War II.
Manufacturing Complications
In the recent years, the manufacture of greases has been described as an art. The processes is very complicated and requires:
The tests designed to qualify the greases from the production environment were designed many decades ago and mainly designed to ensure quality during manufacturing. They were not designed to qualify greases, in the most part, for use in the field.
Grease Formulations
To make matters more complicated, most literature from OEM’s specify a NLGI grade, a soap type and if you are really lucky, a base oil viscosity requirement. Grease manufacturers have made a huge number of formulations and in many cases, these three parameters may be identical, yet the actual formulations could be significantly different and in fact incompatible with each other. Not all greases are compatible. Even greases of the same soap composition may be incompatible with each other, resulting in a complete loss of lubrication in the component.
Grease Sampling
The next issue is related to sampling. The process of lubrication utilized in a greased system is different compared to a similar oil-lubricated system. Grease is designed to release the lubricating oil charge with the soap holding it into the area where the lubrication is required. As a result, the grease in the compartment will most likely be extremely non-homogeneous. If the grease is sampled from the outer surface or from the corners of the system may not been representative of the grease next to the area being lubricated. Taking a representative sample that will provide a valuable maintenance recommendation is a really challenging activity. There are some excellent resources available to combat this issue, I suggest reading the ASTM D7718 Practice for Obtaining In-Service Samples of Lubricating Grease.
Grease Testing
The final step of conventional condition monitoring and equipment maintenance is normally testing of the fluid. As noted above, a number of conventional grease tests, are designed to qualify grease manufacture. These tests, such as penetration and dropping point, may not give any significant information for reliability purposes. This may seem of great concern to most, but in-service grease testing is an area where most current research is focuses on.
Why Test Your Grease?
Grease is rather complicated compared to conventional lubricating system’s condition monitoring systems. You might ask, why bother? Really, it comes down to cost. Grease is generally more expensive than the equivalent lubricant, sometimes by a factor of 10 or more. In addition, a large number of grease systems are designed to last a much longer periods between re-greasing compared to some conventional oil lubrication systems. As a result there is a real financial gain to be found from obtaining effective maintenance reliability recommendations.
POLARIS Laboratories® will be adding grease to our fluid analysis capabilities in the coming months. Stay tuned!
Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you.
Published March 21, 2019
Corporate Headquarters
7451 Winton Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46268
+1.317.808.3750
Mon 7:30am thru Fri 7pm. ET
