Machinery Lubrication India Jan Feb 14 10 | Page 32

MLI

BACK PAGE BASICS

LOREN GREEN | NORIA CORPORATION

WHY YOU SHOULD
SAMPLE AND TEST NEW OIL
Recently, I have visited several plants
with oil analysis programs that have
ranged from non-existent
to fairly robust. The
common problem in all of
them was that there was
no sampling or testing of
new oil receipts. This is
critical for several reasons,
such as to ensure that the
oil received is the oil ordered, to
establish a baseline for subsequent
testing and monitoring of the oil
condition, and simply to verify lubricant
cleanliness. It is essential to fully
understand each of these important
issues.

were tested. The results were as follows:

determined by the speed of rotation,
the load on the elements and the
lubricant’s
viscosity.
Lubricants are purchased
with a specific viscosity to
maintain that lubricant film
and eliminate boundary
conditions or metal-onmetal contact for the
particular
application.
While this applies for lubricants
purchased in drums, buckets, bottles,
etc., in the case of bulk deliveries, there
is an additional consideration.

If you are tracking lubricant
cleanliness but are not sampling
your oil upon receipt, you are
spending good money to clean
up someone else’s mess.

Ensuring the Lubricant
Received is the Lubricant
Ordered
This may involve a simple viscosity
comparison or a complete elemental
analysis to ensure that the additive
package meets the application’s
requirements. At the very minimum, a
viscosity comparison should be
performed.
In his “Should New Lubricant Deliveries
be Tested?” article for Machinery
Lubrication, Jim Fitch references an audit
performed by the American Petroleum
Institute (API) in which 562 motor oils

4 percent of the motor oils were
classified as having standard deviations
(one out of every 25 oils tested). Many
had the wrong concentration of
additives, while others failed to meet
low-temperature specifications.
16 percent were classified as having
marginal deviations (one out of every
six oils tested).
Assuredly, technology has advanced
since this study [