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Readers Challenge    July 7, 2004

Unusual Particle Counts Confusing

Richard Hassebrock, Field Engineer, Castrol Heavy Duty Lubes

At a minimum there should be some communication with the maintenance personnel that draws the oil samples. Often simple misunderstandings can be cleared up easily by asking the person who drew the sample directly about the situation and drawing them into a conversation about it. Maybe they misunderstand the direction of flow, or maybe it is labeled incorrectly. If either is true the next sample will also be incorrect, and now you will have two times the amount of bad data and will be no closer to solving the mystery. Eliminate the possible misunderstanding first to avoid this.

Also, it is just good practice to get the people involved in drawing the samples involved in interpreting the results, so they are aware of how important their function is, and they will be more likely to take ownership of it and perform to the best of their ability.

The scenario outlined does not indicate how well equipped the onsite lab is and what other testing is being performed. All we know at this point is there is an increase in particle count, but we do not know what the particles are, making it difficult to identify the root cause of the abnormal particle counts. Comparison of the particle count to other test result data would help here. The onsite lab should have a working relationship with an off-site lab that is able to perform tests the on-site lab is not equipped to do, i.e. spectrograph, ferrograph, etc. With the results of these tests in hand we would be in a much better position to identify the cause of the abnormal particle count.

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