Oil Analysis + Wear Particle
Articles
How to Measure Tribology Using a 100 kHz Sampling Rate Vibration Analyzer
We can use vibration analysis to see what goes on in the interface between moving surfaces and, therefore, catch potential problems there...
- Ray Garvey
- Ametek
Articles
Sources of Sodium
Sodium is also an indicator of contamination with salt, whether it is from moisture ingression from a nearby source of salt water, or airborne particulate ingression from nearby roads that are salted in the wintertime...
- Evan Zabawski
- TestOil
Articles
CMMS – Friend or Foe?
In every good maintenance program, there needs to be a place to store a history of problems found and actions taken if we are to learn from our experiences and continuously improve...
- Paul Dufresne
- Reliability Playbook, in Partnership with Lubrication Engineers
Five Minute Facts
Introduction to Elemental Spectroscopy
Elemental spectroscopy measures in-service fluid samples for wear metals, additives, and contaminants...
Case Studies and Stories
Prediction of Vibrational Fatigue on Bolted Joint Interfaces Using CAE
Vibrational fatigue is the failure of a material under cyclic loading caused by forced vibration. An excited structure responds at its natural frequencies, resulting in a dynamic stress load...
- Ameer Ambavaram
- Mercury Marine
Articles
What Failed Demulsibility Results Mean
Demulsibility, or more correctly, water separation, is a measure of a lubricant’s ability to separate from water. Lubricants and water have a natural tendency to separate because most basestock molecules are non-polar, while water molecules are polar and will seek each other out instead of mixing with the base stock...
- Evan Zabawski
- TestOil
Articles
How Do You Make Your Condition Monitoring Program More Valuable?
If you are involved with condition monitoring you probably believe you add value to the organization; your warnings of impending failure allow the company to avoid downtime, reduce costs, and much more. But does management believe you are providing a valuable service...
- Jason Tranter
- Mobius Institute
Case Studies and Stories
Hydra Main Propulsion Gearbox
Once upon a time, there was a ship called the Hydra. They were suspicious that the gears or bearings in the main gearbox were failing and asked a vibration analyst to perform a test. The analyst turned to me for help...
- Jason Tranter
- Mobius Institute
Articles
Introduction to FTIR Spectroscopy
Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy measures additive depletion, contaminant buildup and base stock degradation in lubricants. This type of analysis complements wear metal and other analysis...
