Oil filters
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We see a great challenge in the maintenance of oil, which has become one of our areas of activity over the last few years.
"It's not the few drops of oil that are expensive, it's the high cost of maintaining mechanical equipment that represent the really high costs".
No one in industry can say with certainty how much money is lost every year through polluted oil. Some have provided us with an indication of the enormous savings that can be achieved by using clean oil. Clean oil not only extends the oil's working life, it also helps to avoid stops, low utilization of machinery and plant, wear over time and major maintenance costs.
Two causes of polluted oil
There are two main types of pollution in oil, solid particles, and chemical pollution, usually water, in free or combined form.
Chemical pollution
This is mainly water, together with some decomposed particles from the oil, cutting fluids, anti-corrosives cleaning products. One knows from experience that water in either free or combined form is the biggest problem with chemical pollution. Approximately 30 -40% of all breakdowns are caused either directly or indirectly by water in the oil.
Solid particles
Solid particles can originate from external pollution and enter the hydraulic oil via the breather air, lubricating oil from piston rods, topping up with dirty oil or during maintenance work.
Solid particles can also form in the system itself through metal surface wear over long period of use.Oil usually contains a high volume of iron (Fe), a result of wear occurring on steel surfaces in the system.
Enlarge Other metal content due to wear are silicon (Si), copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and tin (Sn). The Pb, Sn, and Cu content originates from anti-wear additives that decompose in use and from mechanical wear of machine parts.
A combination of pollution
Almost without exception, one knows from experience that hydraulic oil becomes polluted by a combination of particles and water and the rate at which the oil decomposes if one fails to remove the pollutants efficiently.
Product Manager Nina Enger, AS Norske Shell, gave a good description of the importance of clean oil; the damage that occurs in hydraulic plants and environmental damage in her article "Have clean hydraulic oil". Over 80% of all faults that occur in hydraulic plants are caused by impurities in the oil.