Oil Analysis Lab Offers Advice on Lubricant Storage and Handling to Prevent Deterioration
You are paying top dollar for the best possible lubricants and are confident they will provide great protection for your industrial machinery. They probably will—provided you follow best practices for lubricant storage.
Eurofins TestOil Lubrication Engineer Dwon Ruffin explains that there are several areas of lubricant storage that can lead to degradation. “The first and most common aspect would be contamination. This can consist of things such as water, dirt, metals, process contaminants, salts, acids, and anything else present in the air in the immediate environment. Reducing exposure to these contaminants during storage is the key to protecting stored lubricants from degradation.”
Dwon adds that, while there are many variables such as the facility layout, processes and environmental factors that are often overlooked, there are three primary areas of concern:
1. The storage environment
2. The type of containers and sealing mechanisms
3. The type of fluid transfer devices, support equipment, and associated practices
While all three of the above areas are important, the one that is most frequently overlooked is the third. “The cause is often prehistoric practices that lead to not only degradation but bacteria issues and particulate and cross contamination problems,” Dwon advises. “When you consider that cross contamination can also lead to lubricant degradation, a $25, 2-minute fix, can prevent an expense of $250,000 or more.”
Contamination during storage at the customer’s facility is compounded when it arrives from the distributor contaminated (this is very often the case). Because of this, Dwon says he would almost always recommend testing prior to use. “Sometimes, oil will sit for so long that the formulation has been changed and new information may be available that wasn’t prior to storage,” he explains. “However, in some cases, the amount or volume of oil coming in and going out may require random spot checks as opposed to testing every type and every batch.”
For more information on working with Eurofins TestOil for oil analysis and training visit www.testoil.com. Contact: 216-251-2510; sales@testoil.com.
About Eurofins TestOil
With more than 30 years of experience in the oil analysis industry, Eurofins TestOil focuses exclusively on assisting industrial facilities with reducing maintenance costs and avoiding unexpected downtime through oil analysis program implementation. As industry experts in diagnosing oil-related issues in equipment such as turbines, hydraulics, gearboxes, pumps, compressors and diesel generators, Eurofins TestOil provides customers with same-day turnaround on routine oil analysis testing. For more information on partnering with Eurofins TestOil on oil analysis programs or training opportunities visit https://testoil.com. Contact: Michael Barrett 216-251-2510; sales@testoil.com.
About Eurofins – the global leader in bio-analysis
Eurofins is Testing for Life. Eurofins is the global leader in food, environment, pharmaceutical and cosmetic product testing, and in discovery pharmacology, forensics, advanced material sciences and agroscience Contract Research services. Eurofins is also a market leader in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, and in the support of clinical studies, as well as in BioPharma Contract Development and Manufacturing. The Group also has a rapidly developing presence in highly specialised and molecular clinical diagnostic testing and in-vitro diagnostic products.
With over 61,000 staff across a network of 940 laboratories in 59 countries, Eurofins’ companies offer a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods. Eurofins Shares are listed on Euronext Paris Stock Exchange.
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