In-Service Oil Analysis

Condition Monitoring (CM) was coined ca.1980, replacing and augmenting NDT (Non-Destructive Testing).  A good CM program, like oil testing and lube analysis can offer potential savings ranging from 10-50 times the cost. Lubricating equipment is essential to maintenance and proper function.  Used oil analysis allows you to ensure proper lubrication.

Used Oil Testing Equipment

CM employs a variety of techniques for machine monitoring to ensure they are lubricating equipment properly, like used oil analysis, without interruption of the machine’s work or production. CM methods, like lube testing, are closely alied with other terms such as Predictive Maintenance or Proactive Maintenance, Reliability Centered Maintenance.  The primary CM techniques being:

• Lubricant Oil Analysis – Inspection of an in-service oil analysis to ascertain machine and lubricant health via lubricant contamination and degradation librication testing (see Kittiwake.com for a range of On-Line, On-Site ad Off-Site solutions)
• Wear Debris Analytics - similar to used Oil Analysis: the inspection of wear metals with oil testing equipment to determine origin, wear mechanism and contamination levels. (see Kittiwake.com and Linerscan.com or Analexalert.com for a range of ferrography and magnetometry solutiosn available from Kittiake).
• Vibration Signature Analytics – Acoustic sensors or accelerometers signal machine trauma, such as damage to bearing races, cracks or poor lubrication supply. (see Holroyd for vibration and acoustic emissions solutions). Acoustic Emissions is also applicable for the detection of gas and valve seat leakage and electrical arcing.

Lubricant Analysis Equipment

There are secondary techniques, including thermography that serve as ancillary support to used in-service oil analysis. Nevertheless, Oil testing equipment and vibration monitoring are the dominant CM players. 

* WDA using on-line solutions from Kittiwake have built in data processing and require a low level of expertise for accurate interpretation of results.

Lubrication Analysis

	Acoustic Emission	Vibration Analysis	In-Service Oil Analysis	Infrared Thermography	Wear Debris Analysis
Sensor Position	Not Critical	Critical	Not Critical	Not Critical	Critical
Expertise	Low	High	Medium	Medium	High
Applicability	Wide	Wide	Wide	Wide	Medium
Damage Detection	Early	Early	Early	Low-Med	Medium
Low Speed Sensitivity	High	Low	Low	High	High
Technologies available from the Kittiwake group of companies
Acoustic Emission:		Kittiwake Holroyd Technology
Oil Analysis:		Kittiwake Developments Technology (Analex)
Wear Debris Analysis:		Kittiwake Developments Technology

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Kittiwake offer solutions for all options, with particular emphasis on increasing demand for early warning On-Line and On-Site solutions.  

• Oil analysis services - degradation and contamination
• AE & Vibration - early bearing damage, cracking and fatigue, gas and valve leakage.
• Wear metals - physical particles in the oil flow
• Emissions - process deviation from optimum
• Gas and valve leakage - process integrity

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Regular lubricanting in-service oil analysis at an appropriate interval is important.  The ability to trend test values and set limits is often critical in drawing proper conclusions. In turn, this directs the maintenance effort. Used oil testing is a means to an end: a useful and accurate assessment of equipment and lube condition which will drive maintenance action efficiently. Without a quality evaluation, the used oil testing itself is for naught.

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Click here to listen to a podcast: Jack Poley, Technical Director for Kittiwake-Americas, describes his view of the Condition Monitoring field