Lubrication Analysis
Lubrication analysis can be used as a troubleshooting tool to determine if a failure is about to occur saving costly unscheduled production interruptions.
Acuren Lubrication Analysis Answers Important Questions About Your Assets
Lubrication analysis is the process of analyzing sample(s) of oil and/or grease in order to determine the lubricant’s properties, suspended contaminants and wear debris. In other words, is the lubrication good, are there contaminates, and if so what, and is there any evidence of wear? Acuren utilizes advanced oil analysis techniques for wear metal trending, SH&E critical assets or root cause failure analysis (RCFA), including the following.- Filter Debris Analysis (FDA) – Wear metals and contaminants captured by the filter media are retrieved from a used filter and coupled with X-Ray Florescence (XRF) to obtain wear metals which are compared to a wear map.
- Analytical Ferrography (AF) – Microscopic inspection of a ferrogram slide made from a used oil sample using heat treatments, optical filtering and magnification. The morphology (surface and edge) and colour of the treated particles allow identification of various wear mode of rotating elements.
- Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) – This is a higher magnification tool, and more powerful than X-Ray, to aid in wear particle composition identification for particles too large or dense for XRF.
- Varnish Potential (MPC) – This measures the potential of the oil to form varnish through oxidation and is reported on a scale from 0 to 100.
- RULER (Remaining Useful Life) – The RULER test uses voltammetry to test the Amines and Phenol (anti-oxidant) additives present in the lubricant.
