Oil Analysis III

Course Description

Oil analysis and lubricant performance is your passion, and if you’re ready to be an expert authority for your company and lead a comprehensive, in-house analysis program – Oil Analysis III is the training you need to make this a reality.

Oil Analysis III is designed to give managers and reliability professionals the right know-how to develop and implement a strong oil analysis program for their workplace or company. In addition to learning the right metrics for program implementation and evaluation, the OA III student will study the most advanced levels of diagnostics and predictive maintenance to ensure program success.

Level III Course Outline

Base Oil Fundamentals

• How mineral base oil groups compare on 9 criteria
• How synthetic oils compare to mineral oils
• Advantages and disadvantages of common synthetic lubricants
• How wear and friction control additives work
• The role of fatty acids, AW and EP lubrication films

Understanding and Analyzing Machine Wear

• 16 factors that cause changes in wear debris concentrations
• Effects of water on bearings
• 31 factors leading to abnormal engine wear
• How to enhance the detection of abnormal wear particle trends
• One simple technique to help you detect faults earlier
• Review of technologies used to analyze wear debris
• Particle size sensitivities of wear particle technologies
• Comparison of laboratory emission spectrometers
• How wear particle size influences spectrometric analysis
• How to determine the severity of a wear problem
• How to evaluate lock-step trends
• How to normalize for makeup oil
• Potential sources of metals in oil
• Best applications for elemental analysis of wear metals
• Advantages and disadvantages of analytical ferrography
• How filtergrams compare to ferrograms
• How to characterize particle composition by visual inspection
• Shape features of common wear particles
• Common machine wear mechanisms and how to identify them
• 11 sources of spherical wear particles and how to identify them
• How to recognize wear zones in gearing

Integrating Oil Analysis with Vibration Analysis

• Failure detection zones of oil versus vibration analysis
• Where oil and vibration analysis overlap
• Strengths and weaknesses of oil and vibration analysis on detecting 13 machine problems
• Combining vibration with wear debris analysis for bearing failure analysis

Fluid Properties Analysis

• How viscosity index impacts an oils ability to lubricate
• Best practices for onsite viscosity analysis
• 4 root causes of oxidation and why they are important
• The role of antioxidants and how they work
• 5 indicators of oil oxidation
• How to measure oxidation stability
• How acid numbers trend with different types of oils
• Machine diagnostics using neutralization numbers
• Detecting base oil oxidation with FTIR
• Strengths and weaknesses of FTIR
• How sludge and varnish are formed and how to detect
• Recommendations for a new lubricant testing plan

Additive Depletion

• 14 ways additives are depleted from oil
• How to detect depletion of 10 common additives
• How to find additive date on an oil analysis report

Contamination Analysis

• 5 ways to count and size particles
• Monitoring dust and dirt contamination by elemental analysis
• Tests for high soot load and fuel contamination

• How defoamants work and how they are depleted
• 16 water ingression sources
• 6 additives that are attacked by water contamination and results of each
• Machine effects of water-related problems
• Review of water detection technologies
• How to detect glycol in crankcase oil

Grease Analysis

• Methods for sampling grease
• Common used grease tests and what they measure
• 7 grease performance concerns and how to test
• How grease properties change due to incompatible mixtures

Onsite Oil Analysis Options

• How to integrate onsite with offsite oil analysis
• How to prepare a filter patch for particle contamination assessment
• Review of onsite viscometry, FTIR and particle counter options
• Small, medium and large budgets for an onsite lab: what to buy
• Tips for designing an onsite lab space

Designing an Oil Analysis Program

• How to select candidate machines for oil analysis
• 4 steps to optimizing interval-based oil changes
• Considerations for condition-based oil changes
• Factors influencing oil sampling frequencies
• Tips on working with an offsite lab
• 5 applications for goal-based limits
• How aging limits signal the approaching end of useful oil life
• 4 applications for rate-of-change limits
• Interpreting elemental trends using level limits

Cost Benefit Analysis

• 7 cost-saving areas for quantifying benefits
• Estimating the value of a predictive maintenance “save”
• Estimating annual savings per machine
• 3 project evaluation decision tools
• How to track your program: lubrication KPI’s

World-class Maintenance Philosophies

• Five prevailing features of world-class maintenance programs
• The 80:20 rule for maintenance
• Three successful elements of a CBM program

Introduction to Machinery Lubrication

• Oil formulation and its importance in effective machinery lubrication
• Six key functions of lubricating oils
• Three primary lubrication regimes
• Introduction to base oils and additives
• Choosing the correct base-stock
• Conditions that dictate use of synthetic oils
• Antioxidant additives and their role in oil life
• Dispersants and detergents – the key to controlling soot
• Controlling wear with additive chemistry

Oil Analysis Fundamentals

• Interpreting the language your oil is speaking
• Prevailing myths about oil analysis
• Common applications for sampling and analysis
• Three categories of oil analysis

Oil Sampling – The Very Best Practices

• 11 elements of a successful oil analysis program
• How clean should sample bottles be?
• How to find the best sampling locations
• Sampling valves and hardware recommendations
• A quick method for optimizing sampling intervals
• The importance of primary and secondary sampling points
• How to properly sample circulating systems
• Safe, effective high-pressure sampling from hydraulic systems
• Best practices for sampling splash-, collar-, and ring-lubricated systems

Fluid Properties Analysis

• Four common root causes of oil degradation
• Recognizing and controlling oil oxidation
• Monitoring lubricant degradation using acid number
• Monitoring lubricant health using FTIR
• Determining oil life using RPVOT
• Recognizing and controlling thermal failure
• How to recognize additive depletion or degradation
• Using paper chromatography (blotter spot test) to detect additive and base oil degradation
• Four ways to detect the addition of wrong oil

Contamination Control and Proactive Maintenance

• Seven common contaminants
• Oil cleanliness and oil life extension benefits
• Using the ISO Solid Contamination Code
• Proactive maintenance in three easy steps
• Case studies for proactive maintenance
• Oil filter and breather recommendations
• Portable filtration carts – three ways to use them
• Setting targets for oil cleanliness
• Detecting and controlling moisture contamination
• Selecting moisture removal/filtration methods
• The effects of heat on lubricants
• Controlling air entrainment and foam
• Glycol contamination
• Dealing with soot
• Understanding fuel contamination

Fault Detection and Wear Particle Analysis

• How wear metals are measured using RDE and ICP spectrometers
• Measuring larger particles with Rotrode Filter spectroscopy
• Using ferrous density to determine the severity of a wear problem
• Using analytical ferrography for advanced fault detection
• Using ferrography for root cause analysis
• Four primary sources of friction in lubricated machinery
• The 10 wear mechanisms that reduce machine life
• The most common wear modes in plain, rolling element, and thrust bearings
• Understanding gear wear
• Understanding wear in hydraulic systems

Instrument Free On-site Tests

• How to inspect vents and breathers
• Tips for effective sight glass inspection
• Getting valuable information from used filters
• Inspecting reservoirs for clues about lube trouble
• Scenting lubricants to find problems
• Getting visual clues from the oil sample before mailing it out
• Getting into particle analysis for under $100
• Turn your kitchen blender into a test for demulsibility and foam tendency
• Screening for water with a simple hot plate
• How an unwanted business card can reveal oil degradation

Interactive Case Studies Workshop

• Individual and group participation in problem-solving exercises
• Exercises in how to read an oil analysis report