increasing longevity of rotational equipment
DESCRIPTION
Lubrication oil cleanliness is probably the single most important factor determining your rotational equipment longevity.TRANSCRIPT
Increasing Longevity of Rotational Equipment
Lubrication oil cleanliness is probably the single most important factor determining your rotational equipment longevity.
The British Hydromechanics Research Association (BHRA) conducted a three year controlled “field” study of 117 hydraulic machines:
injection moulding, machine tools,
material handling, mobile equipment (earth moving, etc), marine hydraulics, and test stands
with the sole purpose of correlating fluid cleanliness to breakdown frequency. The results published are extremely compelling and worthwhile heeding.
You would assume that operating machinery within oil cleanliness specificationsshould assure that the life of the equipment is reasonable, R&M is fair and downtime minimised. But what if the lube circuit oil is maintained at several levels of cleanliness above the norm?
The answer is surprising and the BHRA study shows that based on a datum of ISO 18/15 oil that oil that is two grades ‘cleaner’ will outperform the datum oil by 1.8x reliability based on breakdowns. If the oil is running at ISO 22/19 then breakdowns are far more frequent and more than twice as problematic.
The chart also shows that the new ‘clean’ oil received from the supplier is typically ISO 21/18, and potentially harmful to your machinery if not polished before first use.
If you suffer an event that compromises the cleanliness of your oil contact BioKem and seek advice as the oil should be able to be recovered, dehydrated, filtered and polished so that it exceeds a new oil spec. A cheaper and sometimes quicker solution than ordering new oil.
BioKem has the equipment to perform on-site oil purification to rectify post-event lubrication circuit contamination without discarding the oil and installation of conditioning vacuum dehydration equipment running kidney loop filtration.
