Learn oil/fluid lab analysis & condition monitoring

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Learn Oil Analysis

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Secrets of OCM

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Welcome to the definitive resource on all things oil analysis. Take a look around the site and register for free to get full access to the learn oil analysis book series.

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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.

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This article will answer the following questions:

Why traditional oil condition monitoring services have been for years missing abnormal wear associated with failures?

Why if you can see a wear particle traditional lab analysis cannot?
Why grease elemental analysis has traditionally been poor at giving consistent and repeatable results?
What are the alternatives that have been tried to give customers the true answer of wear in their oil and grease samples?
What is this new techniq...

Lubricant elemental wear metal analysis - is your lab's methodology failing to catch failures?

word image 44 Learn used oil analysis sample testing, lubrication reliability maintenance, predictive lab diagnostics to reduce costs & boost profits.

Water In Oil – the problem

Water is a very poor lubricant and the fact it does not mix easily with oil means it causes double the problem by removing the stuff that is. The density of water means it will drop to the bottom of bearings or loaded surfaces, the exact place the best Lubrication is needed. Water with air also promotes corrosion (rust) within the system. In addition, high temperatures environments and high loading water will boil off at the mating surfaces, leading to a temporary l...

Water in Oil - How to Prevent & how to remove water from lube oil.

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This article will answer the following questions:

What is a Total Acid Number (TAN) and what is a Total base number (TBN)?

When to change engine oil and what indicates an oil is spent?

Acid Number – This is the concentration of acid in the fluid. The new oil value may not be zero since some oil additives react similar to acids with the reagents used for testing. Hence it is important to monitor the trend in change of TAN from a baseline sample or new oil reference. In...

What do Acid Number (AN / TAN) and Base Number (BN / TBN) mean on a lube oil sample analysis report?

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Oil analysis is often spoken about in terms of large diggers, ships, production machinery in factories, power generation, and large fleets of vehicles such as rail, truck and buses. It is not usually mentioned in terms of cars. I mean obviously labs have looked at the car industry before when promoting oil analysis simply because of the size of the market, but since the main selling point has often been on reducing downtime costs the industry has always gravitated around machinery with large cos...

Why you should be sampling your vehicle / car oil, fuel and coolant?

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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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What is a viscosity Index (VI)?

All oils thicken with decreasing temperature & thin when increase it. Thin oil takes little energy to move, but gives minimal separation of surfaces, whilst thick oil gives good separation but uses energy to move shafts through the lube meaning machinery operating temperatures have a big impact on wear rates & energy efficiency, hence why lube oil manufacturers try to work towards a perfect oil that stays the same thickness (viscosity) with temperature. B...

Viscosity index - how does your oil cope when it feels the burn

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Varnish has become a popular term in the industry in recent years although it has been around since the first usage of lubricants.
Part of its popularity in recent times is aftermarket additive and filter manufacturers have realised they can remove the material, so it’s measurement has become highly promoted. Additionally the classical ultracentrifuge methods of measuring varnish have now been overtaken by Membrane Patch Colourimetry (MPC). The manufacture of the MPC devices has also been act...

Varnish is like cholesterol in your machinery

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.

Read the Book

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.

Welcome to Learn Oil Analysis

Training Videos

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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.