Testing virgin oils is important to prevent contamination,
says Techenomics

Tests on new oil just as important as used oil
As part of an effective and proactive maintenance program total fluid management provider Techenomics says it is important to test virgin oils before they are added to equipment.
Doing this can eradicate the possibility of adding contaminated oil to the equipment, according to Techenomics’ CEO Chris Adsett, and help ensure the maintenance program is predictive – “in other words it predicts issues before they arise”.

Techenomics has been testing oils and lubricants, including virgin products, for more than 30 years and has discovered two main problems that occur in the oils and are imperative to the long life of a machine.
The first can occur when equipment operators change the supplier for their engine oil.

“We recently had a company who changed supplier and when we tested the oil from the 1000-litre tetra packs we identified the viscosity was different to that specified,” Adsett said.

“We were able to easily negotiate this problem with the supplier because the customer had good data to make their case, but it could have created problems with the equipment if this was not the case and the virgin oil was not checked.”

The second common problem found is that the bulk filling tanks are contaminated with water.

“A number of diesel engines we tested came back with low amounts of water contamination in the oil,” Adsett said.

“After an investigation we identified that the problem went back to the bulk filling tanks.  The tank was identified, isolated and an emergency filling station put in place.”

A primary cause of this contamination is from tanks being stored outside and having rainwater sit on the top of the drums.

If the seal is not perfect or the tank’s breather is damaged, when the tank is nearly empty thermal expansion causes the tanks to breathe and condensation forms on the inside of the tank.

To help overcome these problems, Techenomics recommends that oil drums are stored inside or if they are outside then hats should be put over the drums to prevent water sitting on the top. Bulk storage tanks should also have a breather fitted with a desiccant breather.

A regular virgin oil sampling program by Techenomics can avoid any problems caused by these issues.

“If a virgin oil sampling program was in place to begin with, then contaminated oil would never have been allowed into the engines,” Adsett explained.

“Operators should take a virgin oil sample whenever a new supply of oil is opened from either a 200-litre drum or the 1000-litre tetra pack, however, the greatest possibility for contamination is when the oil is in the tank.

“Best practice is to take regular samples from the filling gun in the facility as contamination can come from both the tank and the supply pipe work,”  Adsett added.

For any companies wanting to implement a virgin oil testing program or for further information on virgin oil sampling, please contact your local Techenomics’ representative.

For more information about Techenomics International contact Chris Adsett, c.adsett@techenomics.com; in Indonesia Freddy, freddy@techenomics.com; in South East Asia Siti, siti@techenomics.com, in Mongolia Tumee, tumee@techenomics.com, in Australia Dr Gopal Kumar, gopal.kumar@techenomics.com or for Liquid Tungsten globally Chris Adsett, c.adsett@techenomics.com.

Virgin industrial oil sampling and analysis – click here to download this release as a pdf file