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Latest & Popular Articles

See the latest and most popular articles on oil analysis that have been posted to find out more about how oil analysis works and the benefits it could be doing for you.

This article will answer the following questions:

How to reduce lube oils costs and cheaper lubricant bills?


How to extend oil drain change intervals?
How to effectively plan cheaper oil changes?

If it costs you £50k to change your oil you are naturally going to be cautious about doing so without needing to. So traditional approaches of changing your oil E.g. every 3 years don’t really seem to add up if your oil could go for 4 years, whilst the cost of the machinery failure ...

Why partial oil changes don't make financial sense.

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Plan your service so not rushing for result. If something critical sample more frequently so you can spot problems earlier.
Use a proper courier, don’t trust basic mail systems if that important
In an ideal world all lubricated equipment on site should be sampled, however, this may sometimes feel a mammoth task when initially setting up the programme. To prioritise which equipment to sample first consider the following points:
• Are my employees or the public at risk if the equipment failed?...

What should I be sampling? Decide which machinery is critical for oil lab sampling

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I recently had a long weekend in the south of England and did a little sight seeing getting the most out of my national trust and English heritage passes. Whilst there, I visited stone henge, one of the UK's and potentially the world's most recognisable ancient monuments. Listening to the audio tour, the guide was explaining about the numerous restoration projects that had taken place on the site and one peaked my interest.

In 1900 one of the larger trilithons (the two parallel stones with on...

Can you make your lube oil last 5000 years?

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An interesting question the other day on linkedin. Interestingly, from a competitor lab which I always take as a compliment. So I thought in the gesture of knowledge sharing for the greater good I thought I would write an article to explain.

The question was:

When we test engine oils for customers that are sludged we often comment the reason for this is poor combustion, but I am not quite sure as to how exactly the two are linked. Can you help? Your website is brilliant by the way - love it! I...

What happens in an engine oil to cause sludges?

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All machines wear, that's a fact. It doesn't matter how great your lubricant is, nothing can stop wear taking place entirely when there are moving parts.
So why does wear happen in the first place?Wear is a normal part of your machinery health. No surface is perfectly smooth and even when you look at metal surfaces with a mirror smooth finish, at the microscopic scale the surface looks like a mountain range. These microscopic surface imperfections are called asperities. When a new machine starts...

What's the difference between normal and abnormal wear?

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Extreme Pressure (EP) is the most common anti-wear additive for high load gears. It is Sulphur-Phosphorus based and used when other additives such as ZDDP are not sufficient to give high load wear protection.

If you have ever changed a gear oil, the distinctive smell is from EP.

In normal conditions EP is inactive, but at high temperatures at loaded surfaces EP reacts to form a metal sulphide toughened coating to protect against wear.

However with copper based components care must be taken as...

EP additive for when the loading gets Tough. Extreme pressure additives in gear oils give extreme loading protection in lubricated systems.

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It is widely known water affects combustion in the engine as water will effect combustion. What is less well known is water in biofuel can have a significant impact on the fuel chemistry, since part of the manufacturing process produces water in forming the biofuel ester. Water contamination can actually reverse this process and split the fuel into its individual components of fatty acids and alcohol.

If you have a high water in your biofuel, to remove water the best practice is to first drain ...

How to Remove Water from contaminated diesel Fuel Tanks, engines or vehicles. This prevents risk of fuel bugs too.

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Why Oil Analysis Matters?

Oil Analysis is used by people just like you all over the world to reduce machinery downtime and improve equipment reliability. A small sample of oil from your machinery can provide as much information as a full machine strip down at a fraction of the cost and has been a proven technology for over 60 years to reduce forced shutdowns and failure repair costs. Want to understand how oil and grease analysis works and how it applies to you then watch this short video below.

How Much Can Oil Analysis Save Me?

Oil analysis is a brilliant tool that can save you money each time you sample. The returns on investment vary depending on your machinery type, so feel free to use our sister sites cost saving calculator at the bottom of their FAQ Page.

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By registering for free to our quarterly newsletter and logging in you can read the industry leading textbook series on oil analysis “Learn Oil Analysis”

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Ask a question on oil analysis directly to the site author. This can also include requests on how and with whom to start fluid sampling. You can also contact the author on linkedin.

See our Training Courses

Register for free and get access to some of our great short oil analysis training training courses. Content is updated regularly and includes explanation of tests, sources of wear, how to take a sample and the benefits of oil Sampling. You can also book a dedicated training day for you and your team too or enquire about our deluxe online training programmes.

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Get your oil tested

If you have never had your oil tested before then what are you waiting for and get in contact with a lab today. There are many reputable labs all across the world that offer excellent oil analysis services you can use including our sister lab – Oil Analysis Laboratories, which is the only lab in the world to offer the LubeWear test. LubeWear identifies abnormal wear far earlier than traditional wear metal analysis techniques meaning you can catch faults earlier to keep your machine reliability at its highest. A brief video explanation of the rest can be viewed below.