What happens when a lubricant becomes contaminated? If it isn’t dealt with expediently, that contaminated lubricant can affect the entire machinery system that it’s part of. This can result in increased costs from downtime and equipment repairs, or worse, having to replace equipment entirely. Dealing with a contaminated lubricant requires the whole system to be flushed to prevent further damage.
For effective filtration, the right tools are essential. Lubrication specialists, Lubrication Engineers (LE) South Africa, recommend a “kidney-loop” filtration cart to help drain contaminated lubricants from systems.
Gavin Ford, National Marketing Manager at LE, says the filtration cart is often the first step when LE is helping a client to solve issues. “We’ll get complaints of machinery issues like loud operating volumes, high temperatures, or excessive vibrations. From experience, we know that most of these issues are linked to contaminated lubricants. About 80% of the time, the oil needs to be cleaned, rather than replaced, so we run the kidney-loop system to do this.”
The system mechanically separates out any particles or water from the system, which helps to preventing further damage to the machinery.
Once the system has been decontaminated, it’s important to diagnose the issue. Contaminants can get introduced because of a newly installed part like a pump or motor not having a breather installed with it, or water getting into the system during cleaning procedures. “Once we’ve filtered the lubricant, diagnosed the problem and fixed it, we run the machinery and then do another analysis to check that everything has been sorted out,” says Ford.
In addition to decontamination, filtration carts can be used in a variety of applications, such as dispensing or pre-filtering new oil, evacuating used oil, flushing new or repaired systems, collecting samples for oil analysis and topping off reservoirs.
The right size for each system
Different sizes of filters are available, depending on the system, from 3 microns for hydraulic systems to 20 microns for engines or gearboxes – to avoid filtering out the beneficial additives in the lubricants used in these systems.
The LE filter cart is designed for filtering mineral-based industrial oils and most synthetic oils with a maximum operating viscosity range of ISO 680 at 38°C (100°F) (3,000 ssu / 648 cSt) within ambient temperature ranges of -26 to 66°C (-15 to 150°F).
Although filter carts were designed for system decontamination, Ford says that they can also be a very good way to cleanly dispense and transfer new oil to machinery or other transfer containers. “As well as providing the necessary level of cleanliness for new oil applications, it is also a safer, more efficient way to transfer new oil compared to traditional methods,” he says. If a reservoir is appropriately equipped, oil additions or oil changes can be done without ever exposing the sump to atmospheric contamination.
Any sealed component that is lubricated should be flushed before or soon after start-up (except for hydraulic systems). In fact, Ford says, offline filtration can be much more effective at eliminating run-in debris than changing the oil at the first scheduled interval.
A tool like a filtration cart is an important component in solving lubrication issues, but these issues can also be mitigated through things like regular oil analysis, using the correct lubricant for each application, and applying high quality lubricants that are designed to prevent contamination. Ford says that a good lubrication specialist can advise operational teams all the way through from preventative solutions to helping with decontamination efforts where needed.
