Oil Analysis
The practice of in-service oil analysis and used oil analysis started over a century ago on locomotive engines. Now it is one of the most important components of condition based maintenance (CBM), a maintenance strategy that monitors the actual condition of the machine to decide what maintenance needs to be done to determine maintenance schedules.
Oil condition monitoring (OCM) can provide information about machine wear condition as well as lubricant condition. Reliability engineers and maintenance professionals can make maintenance decisions based on diagnoses of oil analysis results. In many cases, Expert analysis and data review enables identification of potential problems before a major repair is necessary and has the potential to reduce the frequencies of oil changes.
Sunlube support their clients in Used Oil Analysis Program with an Aim to improve customers’ productivity and equipment reliability by a simple principle of condition based monitoring (CBM) which finally reduces Engine/Machine/ Equipment downtime and prevents catastrophic damage.
Oil analysis reveals information that can be broken down into these three categories:
Lubricant Condition: The analysis of the lubricant condition reveals whether the lubricant is healthy and fit for further service or ready for a change.
Contaminants: Contaminants from the surrounding environment in the form of dirt, water and process contamination are the leading cause of machine wear and failure. Increased contaminants indicate that it is time to take action to save the oil and avoid unnecessary machine wear.
Machine Wear: An unhealthy machine generates wear particles at an exponential rate. The detection and analysis of these particles assist in making critical maintenance decisions to prevent machine failure due to worn out components. It is important to note that healthy and clean oil plays an important role in minimization of machine wear.
