Category: Used Oil Analysis

Oil Properties / Used Oil Analysis

What are the safety and environmental benefits of extending oil drain intervals?

Apart from the financial benefit of extending the oil drain interval, there are also safety and environmental benefits. If these pieces of equipment are in high-risk areas, then the humans involved in changing the oil would be placed at risk during these times.

If the oil drain interval is extended, then the humans performing these operations will have reduced hours spent in these high-risk areas. As such, it will limit the number of risk-hours and possibly lower the LTI (Loss Time Injuries) or occurrence of any such safety incidents.

Fewer oil changes mean fewer hours in hazardous zones – and fewer chances for accidents.

Every time the oil is drained from the sump, it must be disposed of safely. Typically, worksites have a dedicated area in which the used oil is stored until it is collected by a disposal provider. Some providers may charge based on the volume they collect or the frequency at which they service their customers. However, the oil must still be disposed. With longer oil drain intervals, there is a reduced volume of used oil collected by these suppliers.

Additionally, longer oil drain intervals also impact the consumption of new oil for these systems. Therefore, equipment owners would likely see a decline in the volumes of oil purchased. This also translates to a saving on the environment as resources used to create new oil are also now reduced, or rather, the demand may be reduced overall.

Another benefit of extended oil drain intervals is that the equipment is available for a longer time. This can become critical in some jobs where the equipment is needed 24/7 or even for an emergency. The availability of equipment can also translate into the potential saving of a life (depending on the equipment).

Overall, there are financial, safety, and environmental benefits to extending the oil drain interval for equipment.

Find out more in the full article, "How to extend oil Drain Intervals Safely using Condition Monitoring" featured in Precision Lubrication Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd. 

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August 23, 2025
Oil Properties / Used Oil Analysis

How much money can you save by extending oil drain intervals?

Before diving further into the condition monitoring aspect, we need to answer the question, “Are there any real benefits to extending the oil drain interval of a piece of equipment?” The answer depends on the criticality of the equipment and the cost associated with its downtime.

Financial Gains from Extended Oil Drain Intervals

For critical equipment where maintenance downtime hampers production or availability, extending oil drain intervals offers tremendous financial benefits. For every oil drain interval, there are associated costs such as manual labor, cost of supplies (filters, new charge of oil), and disposal of used oil, to name just a few.

Every unnecessary oil change wastes labor, materials, and money that could be invested in reliability.

Depending on the size of the sump, costs can escalate, particularly if cleaning is required before the new oil charge is placed into the equipment. Different types of applications will advise the draining of the sump and refilling with new oil, while others recommend that the sump be flushed or manually cleaned before the new oil is administered.

Additionally, if the used oil becomes heavily contaminated during use, the sump and entire system would need to be cleaned thoroughly before new oil is used.

Find out more in the full article, "How to extend oil Drain Intervals Safely using Condition Monitoring" featured in Precision Lubrication Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd. 

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August 23, 2025
Oil Properties / Used Oil Analysis

What is condition monitoring and why does it matter in lubrication systems?

Condition monitoring began as a way to detect anomalies in our equipment using various types of technologies. These include: vibration, ultrasound, infrared, oil analysis, and even temperature.

These were all conditions that were “aligned” with what was happening on the inside of the machine. As such, changes in their values usually indicated that something was occurring, but it was up to the trained analyst to determine if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The most effective reliability programs blend multiple condition monitoring technologies to catch failures before they happen.

For this article, we will focus heavily on oil analysis, but this does not mean that it’s the only technology that should be used for monitoring your equipment. It has been proven that a combination of technologies can maximize the opportunity to detect an impending failure earlier and allow the maintenance team to act/plan accordingly. This can save millions of dollars depending on the industry and the type of equipment.

 

How to use Oil Analysis as a Core Condition Monitoring Tool

Stated, oil analysis can be any test performed on the oil that has been in use in the system. It is essential to note that the oil sampled should be representative of the system; otherwise, the results can lead to operators making inaccurate decisions.

For instance, oil taken from a dead leg of the equipment or in a stagnant zone does not truly represent the oil in the system. This can give a false representation of the system and cause misdiagnosis.

Depending on the equipment being monitored, specific tests would be required to determine the health of those systems. For example, with a turbine oil, one specific test would be the RULER® test to determine the remaining useful life (in the form of antioxidants).

However, if this test were performed for a transformer oil, it would not provide the operator with the necessary information, and more aligned tests such as Viscosity, Dissolved Gas Analysis, or Flash point would be more suitable.

Find out more in the full article, "How to extend oil Drain Intervals Safely using Condition Monitoring" featured in Precision Lubrication Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd. 

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August 23, 2025
Used Oil Analysis

How to measure the Success of an Oil Analysis Program?

In a world where budgets rule the day and any additional program is shut down if merit cannot be found in it, being able to prove the success of your oil analysis program is critical. But how does one go about proving that the implementation of a program has stopped or reduced failures when there isn’t a big incident to compare it against? Simple, we start in the past to get to where we need to be in the future.

Documentation is always critical especially when we’re trying to build a case to implement some new measures. If previous failures have been documented, then the associated downtime and expenses such as additional labour, parts or expedited shipping and handling should also be taken account of. By detailing the costs associated with a failure or unplanned downtime from a lubrication issue, we can use this data to help determine the ROI of implementing the oil analysis program.

We need to then identify the times that the oil analysis program alerted the maintenance team about an upcoming issue or something that didn’t seem right which turned out to be a failing part or perhaps something that would cause some unplanned downtime. In these cases, we need to note what challenge we stopped or reduced the risk of occurring. By assigning a value to the failure that we prevented, we can then develop the ROI on the implementation of the oil analysis program.

Oil analysis can be a game changer for our maintenance teams in our fleets. It can help them to make more informed decisions allowing them to plan maintenance activities better and even reduce unwanted downtime. Oil analysis can be that hidden tool in our utility belt if we make use of it and implement it to help our fleets.

 

References

Bureau Veritas. (2020). The Basics of Oil Analysis Booklet. Retrieved from Bureau Veritas: https://oil-testing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Basics-of-Oil-Analysis-Booklet-2020V_compressed-1.pdf

Rensselar, J. V. (2016, January). Unraveling the mystery of oil analysis flagging limits. STLE TLT magazine.

Find out more in the full article, "Oil Analysis - A Hidden Tool in your Utility belt" featured in Equipment Today Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd. 

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December 23, 2024
Used Oil Analysis

How to Implement Oil Analysis for a mixed fleet

Now that we understand the value that oil analysis can bring, we need to be able to implement it, especially in mixed fleets. It is critical to clearly define the objectives of this program to ensure that we can monitor the value that oil analysis brings to our operations.

Ideally, the main objective of this program is to be able to monitor the health of the assets and prevent or reduce the possibility of a major failure or unplanned downtime. While it would be great to monitor the health of all the assets, this may not be entirely necessary.

Assets can be broken down into three main categories: critical, semi-critical and non-critical. The critical assets are the pieces of equipment which if they fail, can negatively impact the business. Semi-critical assets are those which if they fail, may have some impact on the business while non-critical assets are those whose failure do not impact on the business.

Depending on the nature of the business or the operations / projects which are ongoing at any point in time, your critical assets can switch in terms of priority to become semi-critical or a non-critical asset. For instance, if there was a job which required the use of a crane, then this would be our critical asset. However, if there was a job which did not require the use of a crane, then this asset becomes non-critical.

If we were dealing with the manufacturing industry where there are stationary pieces of equipment and a standard procedure, then the criticality of assets will not change as compared to a mixed fleet operation where contractors may have different jobs and require varying pieces of equipment.

Now that we’ve identified the critical assets / pieces of equipment, the sampling frequency must be determined. For critical assets, these may require some specialty tests as we want to ensure that we are alerted at the earliest possible time about an impending failure.

(Bureau Veritas, 2020) provides some guidelines for oil sampling as per figure 4 below. However, the OEM guidelines should be adhered to once they exist. Even though the sampling intervals state 250 or 500 hours, these must be in accordance with the OEMs guidelines regarding maintenance as well.

Figure 5. Guidelines for sampling as per Bureau Veritas, 2020
Figure 5. Guidelines for sampling as per Bureau Veritas, 2020

Typically, some OEMs may require an oil change at around 500 or 1000 hours (depending on the unit). If we only take the oil sample at the end of the life of the oil, then we are monitoring and trending how the oil ages at this point in time. However, if we’re trying to extend the oil drain interval of a component, then we would need to develop shorter intervals to monitor how the health of the oil is progressing and if it can indeed last for a longer time. If we’re attempting to extend the oil drain interval, then this should be done at increments of about a quarter of the usual interval.

Find out more in the full article, "Oil Analysis - A Hidden Tool in your Utility belt" featured in Equipment Today Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd. 

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December 23, 2024
Used Oil Analysis

How to read an Oil Analysis report

While oil analysis can help our teams identify more information about the condition of the oil, we still need to ensure that they can read the oil analysis report and put measures in place to deal with the issues which may arise. In the example below, we will look through a typical diesel engine report as provided by ALS Tribology lab featured in STLE’s TLT magazine as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. First page of Diesel Engine oil report adapted from Rensselar, 2016
Figure 1. First page of Diesel Engine oil report adapted from Rensselar, 2016

Most labs try to make it very easy for the report readers to assess the health of the oil, at a first glance. They usually implement a traffic light system where the status of the oil is highlighted. In this case, this oil has a normal rating indicating that the oil is still in good health and there isn’t anything to be concerned about yet as shown in Figure 2.

However, one of the main premises of oil analysis is the ability to spot trends over time and from this report, we can see that the oil may not have always been in a good condition as shown in figure 3. Each column represents an oil sample from a different date, so at a quick glance we can see that for two of the results, the oil was not in a good state whereas for the other results they remained in the normal region.

Figure 3: Changing condition of the oil
Figure 3: Changing condition of the oil
Figure 2: Current condition of the oil
Figure 2: Current condition of the oil

One question that often gets asked is, “What is the normal region?”. Most oil analysis labs have collected data from OEMs which explicitly state the alarm limits for their pieces of equipment. As such, for each component, a lab should have matching data for alarm limits for the oil in that component. If none exists, then the lab may use a general industry guideline for these limits.

Therefore, if the actual value of the oil either exceeds or is below the limit, then this value will be flagged and the user notified. As seen in the report, there are basic sections into which these values are broken up, namely; metals, contaminants, additives and physical tests. Depending on the OEM, there will be different limits for these values.

However, our teams need to be able to identify what the presence or absence of the elements mean for different components.(Bureau Veritas, 2020) compiled a listing to help report readers understand this better as seen below.

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Figure 4. Identify what the presence or absence of the elements mean for different components (Bureau Veritas, 2020)
Figure 4. Identify what the presence or absence of the elements mean for different components (Bureau Veritas, 2020)

Armed with this information, our teams can make more informed decisions. If they start seeing the quantity of Chromium increasing in their engines then this could be a sign of wear on the Liners and rings, shafts, valve train, bearings, shafts and gears, seals. Therefore, some investigations can begin on these components and possible wear can be addressed before the component gets damaged to the point that it can no longer function. Similarly, if they notice particular additives decrease over time such as zinc, then this could indicate that the antiwear additive is being depleted at a faster rate. These tables can guide report readers on what is actually occurring in their oils allowing them to properly plan for maintenance activities.

Find out more in the full article, "Oil Analysis - A Hidden Tool in your Utility belt" featured in Equipment Today Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd. 

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December 23, 2024
Used Oil Analysis

What is Oil Analysis?

When we think about the various tools available to our maintenance team, we often think about physical tools such as a screwdriver, wrench or possibly even a hammer (if used in the right circumstances!). However, we don’t think about some of the methods we could employ which can make our maintenance teams more efficient or our equipment more reliable.

One such method is oil analysis and while it may not be at the forefront of our minds when thinking about increasing the reliability of the fleet, its impacts can be very significant once utilized properly. In this article, we will talk about the implementation of oil analysis for a mixed fleet of equipment, the impact of this program and the ways that the success of this method can be measured.

What Is Oil Analysis?

If you’ve ever drained the oil from the sump of a diesel engine, then you would know that it’s a messy process. Typically, when this oil is drained, the mechanic can tell you a few things about what happened on the inside of the engine without going to a lab.

For instance, some mechanics may place a magnet in a sealed bag and drop this into the drained oil. When they remove the bag, if there are metal filings stuck to the outside of the bag with the magnet, then that means there is some significant wear occurring on the inside of the engine. Similarly, if there is a tinge of a rainbow colour on the surface of the drained oil, that could mean that fuel is getting into the oil system and there may be an issue with one of the fuel injectors.

While these methods may not be able to precisely tell us how much fuel or wear (or what type of wear metal was present), they do provide some indications of what’s happening on the inside of the equipment. This is where oil analysis can be the game changer for our mechanics and our teams leading the reliability initiative.

With oil analysis, we can accurately and quantitatively trend the presence or absence of certain characteristics of the oil and what it contains. In this instance, we are able to correctly identify the wear metals present in the oil and trend whether these values increase or decrease over time. This can help our mechanics to figure out exactly where the wear is coming from as they would be able to identify the parts of the engine which are associated with the increase in the particular wear metal from the report.

Additionally, they can become more aware of other important parameters such as viscosity or TBN (Total Base Number) which they would not have been able to quantify without oil analysis. They can also get information on the decreases in additives or increases in contaminants which can allow them to identify or troubleshoot these issues in advance.

Find out more in the full article, "Oil Analysis - A Hidden Tool in your Utility belt" featured in Equipment Today Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd. 

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December 23, 2024
Used Oil Analysis

The Hybrid approach – Sensors & Labs

By Sanya Mathura (Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd) & Neil Conway (Spectrolytic)

The above offers some advantages of using these inline sensors but what really sets the FluidInspectIR apart?

Historical inline sensors have employed dielectric or impedance-based sensing. Impedance based sensing is slightly more advanced than dielectric sensing but still only measures a few electrical parameters such as oil resistance, capacitance and inductance which assist in detecting the polar molecules in the oil.

However, complex algorithms are usually used to convert the electrical data into a meaningful value such as TBN or develop a trend based on a dimensionless value. Laboratories use MIR Spectroscopy which is the same technology utilized by FluidInspectIR. As such, the data / results are given in the same units and accuracy as labs.

The FluidInspectIR technology analyses the spectra in the wavelength ranges which have a chemical meaning for the application in which the sensor is being used, such as turbine oils, EALs, gear oils, engine oils etc. This specificity in the MIR spectrum, coupled with several mechanical and electrical design features allow lab accuracy in the field.

Figure 4: Market validation and asset examples
Figure 4: Market validation and asset examples

The Hybrid approach

While the FluidInspectIR Inline sensors can provide actionable data required for preventive maintenance strategies, there are some parameters where a lab analysis would certainly be advisable. These are more specialized tests such as Air separation / Demulsibility or FZG loading tests which require some fairly complexed processes in which the oil has to stand for some time during the procedure or different loads have to be added until a particular characteristic is met.

With that being said, inline OCM technology has made significant advancements and the FluidInspectIR is currently considered state of the art providing lab equivalent data in real time. In addition, it is also capable of measuring nonstandard properties, such as oxidation by-products which can relate to varnish by-products or the potential to form varnish as well as monitor the quantity of antioxidants. The monitoring of these parameters could not have been done a decade ago as the technology simply wasn’t available.

The future of oil analysis will certainly be a hybrid approach where inline sensors continuously monitor the fundamental parameters and when limits are reached (either below or above), or the trending analysis shows a peculiar behavior, then specialized additional testing can be pursued using the lab infrastructure and expertise.

In this way, resources are conserved when the oil appears to be within its limits and functioning as it should. However, when these limits are reached and the component could be in danger, specialized resources will be deployed to ensure that the component does not suffer a fatality. The way forward for oil analysis is definitely a hybrid approach mixing the traditional with some of the cutting-edge technologies.

Bio:

Neil Conway – Applications Manager, Spectrolytic

Neil is the Applications manager for Spectrolytic where he develops and manages new and current measurement applications for all the product lines. Neil is also extensively involved in sensor characterisation, product development, customer training, and technical marketing.

Previously Neil has held Process Engineering positions in semiconductors with Motorola and Atmel and operated as Wafer Fabrication Manager with IR Sensor company Pyreos where he developed and commercialised the first thin film PZT IR sensor manufacturing line.

Neil is a chartered Engineer (CEng) and Scientist (CSci) and corporate member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (MIChemE) and holds a BEng (Hons) in Chemical & Process Engineering from Strathclyde University.

Bio:

Sanya Mathura, REng, MLE

Founder, Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd

Sanya Mathura is a highly accomplished professional in the field of engineering and reliability, with a proven track record of success in providing solutions to complex problems in various industries. She is currently the Managing Director of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd, a leading consulting firm that specializes in helping clients improve their asset reliability and maintenance practices.

Sanya holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering as well as a Masters in Engineering Asset Management from The University of the West Indies and has over 15 years of experience in the industry. She has worked with several well-known companies and has been recognized for her exceptional work in the field of reliability and lubrication engineering. Her expertise in developing and implementing asset management strategies, risk assessments, and root cause analysis has earned her a reputation as a subject matter expert.

As the head of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd, Sanya leads a team of highly skilled professionals who provide a wide range of services to clients across various industries, including oil and gas, manufacturing, and transportation. Under her leadership, the company has expanded its services and is now recognized as a leading provider of reliability engineering services in the industry across the globe.

In addition to her work at Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd, Sanya is an active member of several professional organizations, including the International Council for Machinery Lubrication and writes technical papers for several organizations. She is also a sought-after speaker and has presented at various conferences and seminars on the topics of reliability engineering and lubrication. She is also an avid advocate for women in STEM.

 

Find out more in the full article, "Revolutionizing oil analysis: Traditional vs Cutting edge Technology" featured in Engineering Maintenance Solutions Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd & Neil Conway (Spectrolytic).

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November 9, 2024
Used Oil Analysis

Emerging technology – FluidInspectIR®

By Sanya Mathura (Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd) & Neil Conway (Spectrolytic)

Spectrolytic’s FluidInspectIR-Inline is a comprehensive fluid monitoring system that uses an array of sensors (MIR, OPC, wear, viscometer, conductivity) to provide real time data on oil and fluid degradation parameters. At the heart of the system is a novel mid-infrared (MIR) sensor that measures the chemical composition of the fluid with parameters such as; TAN, TBN, ipH, oxidation, sulphation, nitration, water, glycol, soot, fuel dilution and additives. These can be measured, as a first in the field, with the same accuracy and in the same units as conventional labs.

There are a couple of areas where the FluidInspectIR can offer advantages as compared to traditional oil analysis. Here are a few of them:

Real Time Monitoring and Faster Results – with these online monitoring devices, users can readily get data throughout the day without waiting for the sample to be taken, shipped to a laboratory and then tested there. This significantly reduces the time between making decisions which could negatively impact the equipment’s performance. Within our industry, this time is absolutely critical as the cost of unplanned downtime for the affected assets can be millions of dollars.

Cost-Effectiveness – every time a sample is taken, there is a cost involved. The sample taking process is usually quite lengthy as often permissions have to be obtained since more organisations are trying to reduce potential health & safety risks by minimizing human-machine interactions.
Once a sample has been obtained it needs to be shipped to a laboratory. This not only has costs attached to it, but many couriers are now making it very difficult to ship oil samples. In addition, each shipment of a sample carries also an implied CO2 footprint.

Figure 1: Comparison of different routes of oil sampling
Figure 1: Comparison of different routes of oil sampling

As shown in figure 1 the resulting cost savings from utilizing real time inline sensors compared to other methods can be summarized as follows:

  • Human assets can be utilized more effectively without allocating time for them to take oil samples
  • Trend analysis based on real time; laboratory equivalent data allows the end customer to move from a time-based maintenance process to a data driven maintenance process
  • Early failures can be spotted very easily and unplanned down time, the nightmare of every asset manager, can be minimized
  • Oil drain intervals can be extended in a safe and controlled manner which can result in significant operational efficiency gains and reduced CO2 footprint

Accuracy and Reliability – getting an accurate representative sample using conventional oil sampling methods can be challenging at times. If the sample is taken at the wrong point (right after the filter or at a dead leg), it might not be representative of what is happening on the inside of the equipment. As such, it can completely derail the trend being established for that component and allow the users to believe that something is terribly wrong with that component.

With the FluidinspectIR online monitoring system, the sample delivery to the sensor is automated and standardized ensuring that the sample is delivered to the sensor in the correct way every time. Therefore, the users can rest assured of getting the sample taken at the right location (ensuring a proper representation of the system), at the same location (ensuring an accurate trend of the data) and with the same technique (which completely avoids any variation from human operators).

As the FluidInspectIR uses mid-infrared spectroscopy which is identical to the technique used by laboratories (FTIR), the data provided by the FluidInspectIR system has, at least, the same accuracy as those produced by a laboratory as shown in figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Comparison of the FluidInspectIR technology to periodic oil checks using a laboratory (red circles)
Figure 2: Comparison of the FluidInspectIR technology to periodic oil checks using a laboratory (red circles)

Actionable data and improved maintenance – with real time data, failures can be prevented and major unplanned downtime eliminated. With the online monitoring system, it is easier to trend an increase in wear metals, change in viscosity, water ingress or any other parameter changes which would warrant some form of maintenance intervention. This provides users with the information they need at the right time without any further delays due to shipping of samples or an inaccurate sample being sent off as shown in the case study in figure 3 where a diesel engine on a dredging vessel saw spiked concentrations of water that coincided with the vessel being moored in harbour. With the quick action of the inline sensors, they were able to save £115k over 9 months.

Figure 3: Case Study for Diesel engine customer
Figure 3: Case Study for Diesel engine customer

Data Integration and Remote Monitoring – traditionally, oil analysis results lived in databases which could be accessed electronically, or they were emailed and stored in a filing system. But these results are only available after a sample has been taken and sent off to the lab. This is how FluidInspectIR takes it a step further where assets can also be monitored remotely, in real time.

Imagine being able to monitor the conditions of a particular component while being offsite or multiple components for various sites. This can be particularly useful when trying to troubleshoot an issue related to a system process, especially across sites. This is one area that traditional oil analysis would not be able to mimic as the sample may not be taken at the exact same time as the ongoing system process therefore not allowing a correlation.

Of particular importance is the ability to trend data across multiple assets. This can be critical if there is a significant environmental factor influencing the condition of the oil which may affect many of the components in the fleet. Being able to easily and quickly detect this can be the difference between a productive day and one that has gone into unplanned downtime.

Find out more in the full article, "Revolutionizing oil analysis: Traditional vs Cutting edge Technology" featured in Engineering Maintenance Solutions Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd & Neil Conway (Spectrolytic).

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November 9, 2024
Used Oil Analysis

Revolutionizing oil analysis: Traditional vs Cutting edge technology

By Sanya Mathura (Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd) & Neil Conway (Spectrolytic)

In our last article we focused on the question of whether oil analysis was still relevant today? While this is an age-old process, the benefits of oil analysis still continue to live on today although the methods involved have significantly evolved since its inception. In this article, we will do a deeper dive into the traditional methods of oil analysis versus some of the new cutting-edge technologies which exist today and whether we may see a replacement of one method over the other or a union moving forward.

If you’ve ever performed an oil analysis you know that this process follows certain standards which are listed in the report.  These standards govern the world of oil analysis and form the basis of how these tests are executed. There are committees dedicated to revising these standards to ensure that they are still relevant to the applications of today, one such committee falls under the ASTM body (American Society for testing and Materials).

Equipment has changed over time where oil sumps have become smaller but now produce more power. Oils are under more stress as they are expected to perform at higher temperatures under elevated environmental conditions and still protect the equipment. Global oil manufacturers work together with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to ensure that the oils developed can work with their components in these increasingly harsher conditions. But what constitutes an oil “working properly”?

This is where oil analysis / sample testing plays a crucial role. Oil analysis tests have been standardized through authorized committees to ensure that the same test can be performed in different parts of the globe using the same procedures. This ensures that there can be a fair comparison of the results of these tests across the globe. These tests should also be repeatable (or get the same results every time they are performed).

Typically, these tests are usually carried out in a laboratory environment, using state of the art equipment to achieve / maintain the required standards. However, sample taking, sample shipping and other human factors often result in misleading and / or extremely delayed reporting of the results. This is where emergent technology can alleviate some of these challenges.

 

Find out more in the full article, "Revolutionizing oil analysis: Traditional vs Cutting edge Technology" featured in Engineering Maintenance Solutions Magazine by Sanya Mathura, CEO & Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd & Neil Conway (Spectrolytic)

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November 9, 2024