This is a system of checking used oil taken from an engine or piece of equipment for its condition, since wear and contamination from other sources will collect in the oil as it goes about its business of lubrication.
Oil is the only part inside an engine that is in physical contact with all internal surfaces. That is why we call this service a Blood Test.
The principle of our Blood test oil analysis for condition monitoring is that all components of engines and industrial equipment such as hydraulic systems are manufactured with different metals and alloys, with aluminium pistons, mild steel & chromium plated piston rings and bearings containing copper/lead or bronze surfaces.
All machines wear under normal conditions, and wear is the action of rubbing off these surfaces. The oil collects these minute wear particles and holds them in suspension until the drain plug is removed and the oil changed.
The rate at which equipment wears is governed by a whole host of elements, i.e. the harshness of the way it is driven, the environment in which it is working, such as a quarry or on the sea where the air drawn into the engine will contain different types of contamination.
The Blood Test analysis measures the rate of change of these contaminates and draws up a history or wear curve of the engine or equipment and when there is a change in the slope of the curve it is normally an indication that somethings wrong. With careful consideration of all the conditions an indication of where and when problems may occur can be forecast.