Lubricating oil analysis

Lubricating oil analysis, as the name implies, is an analysis technique that determines the condition of lubricating oils used in mechanical and electrical equipment. It is not a tool for determining the operating condition of machinery. Some forms of lubricating oil analysis will provide an accurate quantitative breakdown of individual chemical elements, both oil additive and contaminates, contained in the oil. A comparison of the amount of trace metals in successive oil samples can indicate wear patterns of oil wetted parts in plant equipment and will provide an indication of impending machine failure. 

Spectrographic analysis allows accurate, rapid measurements of many of the elements present in lubricating oil. These elements are generally classified as wear metals, contaminates, or additives. Some elements can be listed in more than one of these classifications. Standard lubricating oil analysis does not attempt to determine the specific failure modes of developing machine-train problems. Therefore, additional techniques must be used as part of a comprehensive predictive maintenance program. 

Wear particle analysis is related to oil analysis only in that the particles to be studied are collected through drawing a sample of lubricating oil. Where lubricating oil analysis determines the actual condition... 

Simple lubricating oil analysis by a testing laboratory will range from about 20 to 50 per sample. Standard... 

This method has a very general application range analysis for metals in crude oils, in their various distillation cuts, and in their residues as well as for metals contained in spent lubricating oils, water, lubricants, etc. 

Although distillation and elemental analysis of the fractions provide a good evaluation of the qualities of a crude oil, they are nevertheless insufficient. Indeed, the numerous uses of petroleum demand a detailed molecular analysis. This is true for all distillation fractions, certain crude oils being valued essentially for their light fractions used in motor fuels, others because they make quality lubricating oils and still others because they make excellent base stocks for paving asphalt. 

Until recently, tribology analysis has been a relatively slow and expensive process. Analyses were conducted using traditional laboratory techniques and required extensive, skilled labor. Microprocessor-based systems are now available which can automate most of the lubricating oil and spectrographic analysis, thus reducing the manual effort and cost of analysis. 

Oil analysis has become an important aid to preventive maintenance. Laboratories recommend that samples of machine lubricant be taken at scheduled intervals to determine the condition of the lubricating film that is critical to machine-train operation. Typically eleven tests are conducted on lube oil samples ... 

Oxidation of lubricating oil can result in lacquer deposits, metal corrosion, or thickening of the oil. Most lubricants contain oxidation inhibitors. However when additives are used up, oxidation of the oil itself begins. The quantity of oxidation in an oil sample is measured by differential infrared analysis. 

The first method used for wear particle analysis is routine monitoring and trending of the solids content of machine lubricant. In simple terms the quantity, composition and size of particulate matter in the lubricating oil is indicative of the mechanical condition of the machine. A normal machine will contain low levels of solids with a size less than 10 microns. As the machine s condition degrades, the number and size of particulate matter will increase. 

Lubricating oil samples from all equipment included in the program should be taken on a monthly basis. As a minimum, a full spectrographic analysis should be conducted on these samples. Wear particle or other analysis techniques should be made on an as-needed basis. 

SFC-FID is widely used for the analysis of (nonvolatile) textile finish components. An application of SFC in fuel product analysis is the determination of lubricating oil additives, which consist of complex mixtures of compounds such as zinc dialkylthiophosphates, organic sulfur compounds (e.g. nonylphenyl sulfides), hindered phenols (e.g. 2,6-di-f-butyl-4-methylphenol), hindered amines (e.g. dioctyldiphenylamines) and surfactants (sulfonic acid salts). Classical TLC, SEC and LC analysis are not satisfactory here because of the complexity of such mixtures of compounds, while their lability precludes GC determination. Both cSFC and pSFC enable analysis of most of these chemical classes [305]. Rather few examples have been reported of thermally unstable compounds analysed by SFC an example of thermally labile polymer additives are fire retardants [360]. pSFC has been used for the separation of a mixture of methylvinylsilicones and peroxides (thermally labile analytes) [361]. 

In the area of process monitoring TLC has been used for the study of the thermal decomposition of zinc di-isopropyl dithiophosphate (antiwear additive in lubricating oils) [458]. TLC analysis has been reported as a quality control tool for analysis of dispersing agents (alkylsalicylates, thioalkylphenolates), AOs (dithiophosphates, dialkyldithiophosphates) and their intermediates in lubricating oil (UV detection,... 

There have been some examples of the use of LDMS applied to the analysis of compounds separated via TLC, although not specifically dealing with polymer additives [852]. Dewey and Finney [838] have described direct TLC-spectroscopy and TLC-LMMS as applied to the analysis of lubricating oil additives (phenolic and amine antioxidants, detergents, dispersants, viscosity index improvers, corrosion inhibitors and metal deactivators). Also a series of general organics and ionic surfactants were analysed by means of direct normal-phase HPTLC-LMMS [837]. Novak and Hercules [858] have... 

Table 8.23 collects together some typical ETAAS analyses of polymer formulations see also ref. [141a], GFAAS has also been applied for the determination of additive elements in lubricating oils [52]. Solidsampling GFAAS and NAA are preferred analytical tools for the analysis of mg samples, also in relation to RM production. 

Applications Over the last 20 years, ICP-AES has become a widely used elemental analysis tool in many laboratories, which is also used to identify/quantify emulsifiers, contaminants, catalyst residues and other inorganic additives. Although ICP-AES is an accepted method for elemental analysis of lubricating oils (ASTM D 4951), often, unreliable results with errors of up to 20% were observed. It was found that viscosity modifier (VM) polymers interfere with aerosol formation, a critical step in the ICP analysis, thus affecting the sample delivery to the plasma torch [193]. Modifications... 

XRD analysis on sulfated ash residue of new additive packages in lubricating oils has indicated the presence of nonstoichiometric mixed salts of the elements Mg, Ca, Zn, P and B [60],... 

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