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Oil Analysis Without Particle Counting?
Jose David Trocel, Reliability Engineer, Fertinitro
If the central laboratory doesn't report significant variations
in the solid particles contamination code, I would think the following:
That our machines work with a good condition oil and that our
oil supplier is excellent. That our machines do not have any wear.
That our oil filters and breathers are perfect.
But I should take some caution to verify that this thoughts are
true:
1) Review the machine historical fails record, if the oil has
been always clean I should have a low fail rate associated to
the lubrication in most of our machines.
2) Verify the oil change frequency. It is possible that our oil
is always clean because it is frequently changed, it was the case
of one of our machines that had a biweekly change program for
a mistake introducing in the CMM program.
3) Verify that the sampling is really representative of the lubricant
condition, I should be sure that our inspectors are collecting
the oil in the correct form.
4) Evaluate the characteristics of the optical particle counter
being used and its limitations. I would also would verify its
calibration and the capacity of the personnel using the instrument.
5) Finally I would take a series of samples and I would send
them simultaneously to our current laboratory and two or three
external laboratories to compare the results. And also make sure
that one of these laboratories use the method of my current laboratory
and another available method , for example the blockade of pores.
If I were to find that some of this points are not efficient,
I will take the appropriate ways to correct it, such as to request
consultantship and specialized training. If all this is correct
I would be very glad, maybe I would change the sampling frequency,
but I never stop the solid particles contamination monitoring.
See other responses
to this Readers Challenge.
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