Learn Why Reliability Matters

W Edwards Deming once said, “Learning is not compulsory; it’s voluntary. Improvement is not compulsory; it’s voluntary. But to survive, we must learn.”

And, POLARIS Laboratories® is ready to help you learn…about the future.

We partner with program champions from companies all around the globe and, together, we have helped them save more of their equipment. Yet, the world is advancing rapidly so we’re committed to helping our customers leverage new innovation, creativity and strategy to improve their programs. By embracing change through proven telematics and connectivity capabilities, maintenance professionals have embarked on a continuous journey to Unlock Reliability.

Now, just imagine how effective your fluid analysis program could be if you could successfully automate the information you receive and then transform those untapped recommendations into business intelligence. Come, let us show you. This will be on full display for three days at our fifth annual Customer Summit in Indianapolis from November 18-20, 2019.

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 drive operational performance. With three days of reliability insights, 16 learning sessions, three training workshops, one free program review for current customers and countless hours of peer-to-peer networking, this program is designed not only for you … but a few of your colleagues, too.

 

Here are a few key day-by-day highlights from this year’s conference:

  • Day 1:
    • Exclusive behind-the-scenes laboratory tour at POLARIS Laboratories’ headquarters
    • Interactive networking reception to help you connect the importance of identifying a reliable root cause to common equipment failures
  • Day 2:
    • Compelling look into why the future is now when it comes to reliability
    • Recognition of our annual Program Champion Award finalists
    • Relaxing dinner and reception at an upscale, car storage facility where you can slide behind the wheel and marvel at the engines of these classic, exotic, luxury cars
  • Day 3:
    • Insights on how to turn early savings into lasting success as you expand your program to involve new locations and testing capabilities
    • POLARIS Laboratories’ commitment to the next generation of fluid analysis through connectivity

Join us and learn why reliability matters! The road to fluid analysis success starts right here at the 2019 Customer Summit!

Learn more about the robust agenda and topics, exclusive laboratory tour, hotel accommodations, fees and more. Seating is limited – and hotel rooms are equally limited – at The Alexander Hotel! Clear your calendar November 18-20 and join us in Indianapolis at the 2019 POLARIS Laboratories® Customer Summit, Unlock Reliability.

 

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

Published August 27, 2019

Tips for Understanding Coolant Component Types

POLARIS Laboratories® has over 32 component types to select from for samples pulled from the cooling system. This can become overwhelming. Why are there so many options when the sample is pulled from the cooling system? The reason there are so many options is because a coolant component type represents:

  • The type of inhibitor packaged used for cavitation protection
  • The type of glycol
  • If the sample is new, a concentrate or in-service
8 Common Formulations

There are at least eight common formulations to select from. Once the formulation is determined, the base glycol will need to be selected. After the formulation and glycol base are selected, there are three options to select from to determine if the sample is a baseline or in-service. This is why there are so many options when it comes to selecting the appropriate coolant component type.

The antifreeze formulation can be provided by the Coolant Manufacturer. Anyone submitting samples, purchasing and maintaining cooling systems should know the type of antifreeze utilized in their fleet. The antifreeze information will help indicate if the coolant formulation meets OEM specifications. OEMs specifications will help regulate what formulation is compatible with equipment, seals and hoses. New, advanced equipment technologies and a competitive coolant market will also help drive the different combination of coolant inhibitors being utilized. A mixed OEM fleet may require different antifreeze formulations on-site to meet specifications or a single antifreeze formulation may be acceptable for all OEMs in the fleet.

Selecting the Correct Formulation

Selecting an accurate formulation of antifreeze for the equipment is important. If antifreeze information is unknown and submitted to the laboratory for testing, we default to consider it a conventional ethylene glycol. If the test package evaluates all possible inhibitors we test for, we will be able to determine what type of antifreeze formulation may be in the system. The coolant component type will determine how the results are analyzed and what recommendations are applied on the final report.

To help understand component types and learn the steps for how to select the correct coolant component type, view our Technical Bulletin, Selecting Coolant Component Types.

 

 

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

Published July 9, 2019

VIDEO: Adding Equipment in HORIZON®

 

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. 

Published  June 24, 2019

Eliminating Costly Equipment Downtime

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.

Heavy-Duty Equipment Environments

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.

Condition Monitoring

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. 

Published  June 11, 2019

 

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

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

A Connected World: Fluid Analysis is No Exception

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.

One System: Smarter Actions

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.

A Solution

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.

Part of a Routine

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. 

Published April 29, 2019

5 Reasons You Need to be Testing Your Coolant

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

The Importance of Adding Coolant Testing into Your Program

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. 

Published April 16, 2019

Improving Reliability with Oil Analysis

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. 

Published April 2, 2019