At ITH, Institutet för Tillämpad Hydraulik in Örnsköldsvik, the company offers both consulting services and training aimed at helping companies gain a better understanding of the importance of monitoring oil condition.
– If you know how the oil is doing, you can also get a picture of the condition of the hydraulic system and its expected service life, says Jon Sandström, CEO of ITH.
He explains that there are several ways to continuously monitor and analyse the oil’s contents with bottle samples and to measure its cleanliness, among other things.
– The best approach is a combination of continuous online monitoring and analyses of bottle samples. Online measurements provide different types of information depending on the sensors used, most commonly measurements of water and particle content. Bottle samples provide a deeper analysis of the contents and can also reveal, for example, the level of various additives and metal content.
Cleanliness crucial for service life
There are theoretical models based on a large number of tests, where different tables connect different contaminants in the oil with service life.
– For example, you can see that it is possible to double the oil’s service life if particle content is reduced to one tenth. That is entirely possible to achieve if you work with cleanliness and good filtration, Jon Sandström explains.
In the same way, you can determine how to extend service life in other ways, such as reducing water content and maintaining the right oil temperature.
– The tables show that oil service life is cut in half for every increase of 10 degrees above the base temperature of 40 degrees to which the oil is exposed.
Additive level important for performance
An important part of a hydraulic fluid is the various additives that give the oil different functions and properties.
– To assess the oil’s health status, you need to understand and analyse these. This is best done through an oil sample, where you can see the level of different additives. To interpret the levels you obtain, you need a basic understanding of how the additives work and contribute to different properties. You need to understand that in order to know what level is sufficient for a particular application.
More knowledge is needed
At ITH, several shorter industrial courses have been developed to provide deeper knowledge about measurements, analyses and what they say about oil condition.
– We offer a half-day course where we go through the benefits of oil sampling and how service life is affected by water and particle content. We also offer a larger web-based course on hydraulic fluids and lubricants where we go deeper into what information can be obtained from an oil sample and how those results affect service life. We also cover additives and how they affect properties.
ITH also offers several longer vocational higher education programmes in hydraulics, with opportunities for deeper study in hydraulic fluids, among other things.
– Increased knowledge is crucial in order to understand the more complex modern hydraulic systems we have today and to meet the need for greater sustainability. Training in hydraulic fluids and lubricants therefore serves an important function, and we are trying to meet the increased demand for knowledge by developing various short and long courses, Jon Sandström explains.
Oil analyses provide many answers
ITH also offers a range of consulting services in oil analysis to help companies understand oil performance and extend service life.
– In addition to measuring and analysing particle, water and additive content, we can also carry out several other types of analyses. One is elemental analysis of particles in the oil. In that way, we can determine which metals are wearing and releasing particles, which can indicate which components may need to be replaced or whether additives are being affected. We can also measure changes in the oil that may be linked to varnish in the hydraulic system, which is important information for system performance.
The measuring instruments in ITH’s laboratory have very high precision requirements. It is an independent lab that undergoes quality controls and is compared with laboratories around the world.
– We continuously perform control measurements and all instruments must be carefully calibrated before they are used. Even online equipment out at companies must be calibrated in order to provide reliable data, something that perhaps not everyone is aware of.
