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| Lubrication Tips for Reliability Professionals |
June
14, 2001 Subscribers: 7,041 |
“We suspect that a small amount of an EHC phosphate ester fluid was added to a reservoir containing a PAO synthetic. What is the best way to figure out if this has in fact happened?”
For oils that have wildly different base stock chemistry, the simplest method is usually FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy). FTIR looks for what are called functional groups in the oil sample. These functional groups act as molecular fingerprints to identify different components in the oil, as well as common contaminants such as water, fuel and glycol.
In the case of phosphate ester contamination of a PAO, you would be looking for a peak in the FTIR spectrum around 1700-1800 wavenumber corresponding the phosphate functional group. Since this functional group will not be present in the PAO based oil, any signs of a peak in this region may suggest cross contamination. By comparing the spectra of a new sample of the PAO based oil, a new sample of the EHC fluid and the suspected blend, evidence of cross contamination should be fairly easy to recognize.
Most oil commercial oil analysis laboratories should be able to conduct this test for you.
The benefit of thinner fibers in a filter is that there are more pores
per square inch which allows higher dirt capacity and lower pressure drop.
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According to a recent study, Canadian industry is needlessly wasting millions of dollars by ignoring problems related to friction and wear.
It seems Canadian industry could be saving itself well over $5 billion annually. How? By paying a little more attention to problems related to friction, lubrication, and wear. According to the study conducted by the National Research Council's Associate Committee on Tribology, Canada spends over $5 billion annually on problems of friction and wear that have been ignored, or unresolved. It seems ironic that in our age of space travel and high technology, much of industry does not understand the relationship between friction, wear, and the proper selection and application of lubricants.
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