The STLE Compass, Released September 27, 2011
“A Love/Hate Relationship with Oil Analysis”
With Charles Gay, Senior Data Analyst at Analysts, Inc.
KARA: Hello and welcome to the STLE Compass, brought to you by the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers. The STLE Compass is your convenient and reliable resource for the latest industry developments. I’m Kara Lemar, Education Manager at STLE and in today’s episode, the focus is on oil analysis and sampling, and continuing the conversation started in Tribology and Lubrication Technology (TLT). Charles Gay wrote an article about the love/hate relationship with oil analysis that he’s encountered. This article centers on the observations of customers and their personnel over 37 years. The majority of the conditions or circumstances relate back to a lack of education and communication on the subject of fluid sampling.
Charles is Senior Data Analyst at Analysts, Inc., having started in the fluid analysis industry in 1973. He has been involved in a varied customer base over the years including over the road vehicles, heavy equipment, heavy industry, refrigeration/refrigerant, power generation including nuclear, coal and wind, aviation, fuels, coolants and specialty lubricants test data interpretation including utilizing analytical ferrography, micro-patch, oil filter element analysis and magnetic plug evaluation. He’s been an STLE MEMBER since 1983, CLS 1995, OMA 2000 and Atlanta Section Chairman since 2000.
Today, we will get an inside look at the article and explore the content a bit further. If you haven’t read the article yet, make sure you check it out in this August issue of TLT.
CHARLES, welcome to STLE Compass.
CHARLES: Thank you, glad to be here.
KARA: Glad to have you. So, in the article, you talk about the many challenges associated with oil analysis. Can you highlight some of the ways sampling goes awry?
CHARLES: Yes and it covers quite a broad territory. One of the major issues is the lack of education on some of the parties involved in the oil analysis program. Proper sampling techniques, obtaining a representative sample, all takes training. This is usually provided by the fluid analysis providers, such as our company. Usually when a customer signs up and wants oil/fluid analysis, part of the process is also finding out if the end user is actually familiar with taking proper samples, filling out the paperwork, getting the samples to the laboratory, ordering supplies, getting materials, etc. Where this may go awry is when someone calls in, wishes to place an order, obtains sample kits and starts a program on their own without having been introduced to the proper sampling techniques and actually handling the paperwork and samples themselves, and getting the sample to the laboratory presents some issues.
KARA: On the other side of that, there are some positives that can come oil analysis or sampling when it is done correctly. Can you talk about that?
CHARLES: There’s a large variety of positives that come from oil sampling. One of them is a proactive approach to maintenance. This would involve the maintenance department using oil samples in a proactive approach.
KARA: Proactive instead of reactive. So, reactive is you take the problem and try to diagnose and go back and fix it. Proactive is a better approach because you monitor it as it goes along and can make minor adjustments instead of one huge adjustment once you find that there’s an issue – so that’s probably a good thing.
CHARLES: Yes. A proactive approach decreases the maintenance cost by reducing downtime or components being taken out of service due to unexpected maintenance or failures. The information is also used to fine tune an existing maintenance program. A proactive approach is the most cost-effective way of organizing your maintenance program.
KARA: Sometimes there’s a disconnect, and you started talking about this when sampling goes awry – why do some people not take the time to get the proper sample or what happens in between intention and implementation?
CHARLES: Again, it boils down to education throughout the maintenance group. Once explained to the group, the taking of the oil samples isn’t just one more task that the boss has assigned someone to do. One of the problems that I’ve seen in the past is where somebody is assigned to do a task and they’re not familiar with what they’re doing, they haven’t been properly trained, and they don’t know why they’re taking the oil samples. It doesn’t give them the real background that they need to do their job properly.
KARA: What’s one of the most common problems or mistakes you’ve seen made by companies or individuals you’ve seen in your career?
CHARLES: The most common issue made by companies on fluid testing is not obtaining extensive enough testing on critical components. When you consider the cost of a critical component failure or major corrective maintenance and what it will cost verses the cost of an extensive fluid testing over a year, the fluid testing pays back as low as 5 fold and as high as 60 fold or more depending on the application. In a production environment, one of the biggest costs is obviously having the line shut down or production stopped – that can cost thousands of dollars a day. And if you take a power plant situation, especially in peak demands in the summer time that can cost millions of dollars. So the payback for the oil samples is very easy to come by.
KARA:
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Can you offer an example of where sampling has gone wrong? What happened? How did you fix it?
CHARLES: Sure. I had a customer that had setup a testing program, had the proper test matrix for the components to be sampled and was going to enhance the company’s maintenance program. A person was assigned to take samples with little or no training and had not really been involved in any type of testing program. He was given ten units to sampel during a given time period. The samples were submitted for testing like they were supposed to, and the reports were sent to the customer. All of the test results were the same. The person assigned to take the samples didn’t really understand the task at hand and actually, might have been a little resistant because of his new work assignment. Either that, or he was misled or forgot to take the samples and said “Oh man, I’ve got 10 samples to take.” So the person was shown the reports and they were all the same fluid, same oil, same test results – which says that he took it from one source. The approach that was taken was that the individual was shown the reports, was educated on how to take the proper samples, and became more involved in the fluid sampling program. It’s a hard way to get educated, but it has happened.
KARA: So, what are some of your best practices in regards to sampling and submitting the sample?
CHARLES: Well, to start with – obtaining a representative sample of an in-service fluid from a component is vital in a successful oil analysis program and it really doesn’t matter the fluid type. It could be from coolant to transmission fluid, hydraulic systems, etc. You still have to obtain a representative sample because we’re going to take the fluid itself that you submit to the laboratory and that’s going to be the medium that we obtain information from and of course, when we go through the analysis, depending on the test matrix that’s been purchased, it all relates back to the fluid or the lubricant in service, serviceability and also back to the condition of the component itself, so it’s all inter-related. If a non-representative sample, say a bottom-sample or contaminated sample is taken, the information that we obtain from the test results through the laboratory can point us in the wrong direction and actually make erroneous comments and recommendations on the report going back to the end user.
KARA: Sure, so what’s a representative sample? Or an example? I know it depends on which fluid you are sampling.
CHARLES: Right. There is a wide variety of applications. The best approach is to obtain a sample within 30 minutes of component shut down. We have sampling devices that actually allow a sample to be taken while the component is operating and in some cases, it’s required to take a sample with the component actually operating. Typically it does not involve tubing – it’s usually an online device. And of course, you wouldn’t want to use a drain method while the component is running. Like I said, there are a lot of different methods of obtaining a representative sample and usually that’s part of the training process that’s involved in initially starting an oil analysis program. There are a lot of companies, end users, that have been involved in oil analysis and have been using it for many years and may not be aware of all the new, innovative approaches on sampling and I highly recommend that they contact their service provider and see if there’s anything new, and you can find that information on the websites of the service provider they’re using.
KARA: I want to come back to that, but other best practices related to sampling or submitting the sample?
CHARLES: Submitting the sample and sample identification is crucial. One of the areas that everyone is going to have some issues with is proper and consistent sample identification. With the use of computers nowadays, the filing system is centered around alphanumeric and if it’s not exactly the same kind of identification coming in every time, a lot of different files end up being generated and you end up with test data in various component files. Labeling is as crucial as taking a representative sample. Without the proper identification, you end up losing data over a period of time and can’t use trend analysis too well. It’s almost like a new sample every time if it’s not identified the same. One of the other issues is getting all the information into the computer system. All of us that are in the commercial oil analysis industry have some type of system that we use to collect the information that we need to do a proper interpretation of the test results after we’ve received the sample. Most of that includes: again a consistent ID – component identification, lubricant in service – and that’s very important. It’s surprising in some cases how many people don’t know what oil they’re using! You also need to know when the sample was taken, how much time is on the component, how much time is on the lubricant that’s been in service that’s been sampled. All of this is taken into consideration when we look at the test data and we do our interpretation and generate comments or recommendations.
KARA: You mentioned new technologies or new developments – can you talk about any that you’ve seen or heard about in regards to oil analysis or sampling?
CHARLES: Yes, there have been a lot of different technologies coming on board, and it all centers around communications between the end-user and the testing facility. One of the newer approaches, it’s not brand new – it’s been around a little while – it’s interactive software where the customer actually has access to his database at the testing facility. Of course, this would only be allowed to typically management personnel that would be responsible for their information. And of course, they can track who has gone into the system, who’s modified, etc. Of course, they can’t modify test results, but they can update oil types or changing or correcting a component ID. This puts part of the responsibility of proper communications between the end user and the testing facility. To be honest with you, the paper method of writing it on a piece of paper and having a data entry clerk pick up on the changes sometimes doesn’t happen. This will allow the end user to be a little bit more interactive with his/her data. Some of the other enhancements that are coming along involve, again, technology and communications where we have some of the equipment in the field has an onboard computer that collects a lot of the operating data by hour, by minute, as the equipment runs and that information is becoming more and more readily available. In fact, it’s for distributors, distributor networks, and technicians. They can actually plug into a computer on a machine and download x amount of hours of operating parameters that the machine has gone through. Some of that information will be forthcoming to the testing facilities, such as ourselves, so we can actually see any variance in the operating conditions of the equipment and take that into consideration when we do our interpretation. Some of the other new technologies are online sensors. They’ve been around for a little while but the communications between the sensor and a PC has been somewhat limited. It’s becoming much more available with new technology. In fact, a lot of new plants that are being built today have a lot of the sensors that we’re accustomed to in heavy industry such as vibration, temperature sensors and so forth – all of that will be constantly online, hard-wired and can be monitored 24/7. Where, before, the technician would go around with an estimate and plug into a probe or take a probe with them and do the measurements on a given component by hand. All of this is going to become just another data point in a computer.
KARA: With that, what do you want listeners to take away from this discussion?
CHARLES: The most important aspects is education and communication. These are the most important part of any endeavor that we’re involved in. Fluid sampling isn’t any different. Educating your employees that are involved in the maintenance program is crucial. What I find is that the upper management get well educated, know about the testing, test matrix, how to take samples, and so forth, but transferring that information to the employees that are actually do the tasks is sometimes limited. And there are a lot of different ways that the technicians can be educated. A lot of the information is available online. There is of course, STLE, the local sections, lubrication seminars, STLE Annual Meeting, and then there are other companies that provide education on lubricants, component monitoring practices and oil analysis itself. So the information is readily available nowadays either by attending classes or online.
KARA: So it’s just a matter of getting out there, getting educated and communicating that education to whoever needs it.
CHARLES: Correct. That is still a major issue. It’s been one for my lifetime in the industry, it was that way before and it hasn’t changed today. It’s the same issue – education and communication.
KARA: Thanks Charlie for joining us today and for your insight. I’m Kara Lemar. For more news, information and research on oil sampling and testing and analysis, you can visit our website. Be sure to read the 20 Minutes article that appeared in the August issue of TLT. Thank you for joining us today. This has been another episode of The STLE Compass, pointing you in the right direction.