Have your supplier left you in the lurch when it comes to reliability, maintenance and support? Some of the largest suppliers responsible for this are the Equipment Manufacturers (OEMS), Lubricant and Fuel Suppliers and Parts Suppliers.
Techenomics have performed many site inspections when it comes to lubricants and fuels. You may not believe this but there happens to be a trend when we provide these audits and inspections, the similarities are astonishing, the suppliers have simply supplied the goods and not cared for anything further after. I guess in our day and age it’s all about the sale!
The Blending of Fuel and Lubricants
In the blending industry of lubricants and fuels, they have specifications that the fuels and oils must meet before being delivered or going onto the shelf to be sold, but how many times have you received fuels and lubricants that don’t actually meet these specifications? Most companies don’t even know if the fuel and lubricants meet the specs because they may not analyse the virgin (NEW) fuels and lubricants, you can’t analyse one and forget about the other, they all must all be sampled and analysed and they must all be done routinely.
The Delivery of Fuels and Lubricants
In The Fuel and Lubricant carriers can also cause issues, the tanks themselves can contain contamination and this be pumped directly into your bulk tanks. Filters need to be fitted where possible. Sampling of the delivery should also be performed. Ensure you have a cover overhead of the filling points to ensure they stay clean, dry and free of contamination.
Take a look at the image below, this did not stop them from pumping into the tank! just pushed that contamination directly into the tank along with water that had been sitting inside.
Filter Carts and Filtration Devices
So you have an issue with contamination or you receive reports with high Particle Counts (ISO CODE) and you have a chat to your suppliers about causes and issues, and what is the end result? They now want to sell you a filter cart to rid the debris and contaminants from the fuel and oils, but where did the contaminants come from to begin with? These filtration methods can help prevent further damage to the equipment components but they will not address the cause where the actual issue begin (Bandaid). So did the supplier help you? or did they simply get another sale? Ensure you fit desiccant filters to each tank and establish a change out structure so that they do get replaced.
Analysis Suppliers
There are so many companies out there offering to provided analysis on fuel, oils, coolants and greases, but do they actually know what they are doing? How can a parts supplier know anything about analysis when their expertise is in parts? Lubricant suppliers have learnt some of the necessary information on analysis but if you visit the blending plant and see what analysis they perform on their own lubricants prior to selling them, you will be shocked to find it isn’t what you expected. Analysis is one thing but a full understanding of what tests to perform, how they are performed, what the results mean, applying limits and evaluation, trending the information correctly and interpreting the data is not so straight forward. Parts suppliers sell, equipment manufacturers sell, Fuel and Lubricants suppliers sell, Filtration companies sell but third party analysis companies analyse and interpret results. So who should you be using for your analysis?
Don’t let yourself become a victim of sales.. Search for suppliers that offer you assistance and support. Suppliers that provide you with customer service and have your interest at heart. You want suppliers that offer a service not just sell you a service.
Now without preaching, you do have an alternative, here at Techenomics we provide a service not sell! We provide our clients with exceptional monthly reports on problem samples to help identify issues with wear debris, contaminants and physical properties on the fuels and lubricants. This service is FREE, see I told you we provide a service, so why not contact us now to find out how we can help you.
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