Enhance Your Preventative Maintenance Program
Are you ready to bring your preventative maintenance program to the next level? Using Bruker’s pXRF to analyze wear metals in oils can provide insight into potential failures before major part failures.
The logic is simple! Proactively and regularly testing your used engine oils reveals issues in their initial stages and prevents them from becoming worse. Fingerprinting the metals allows maintenance to target specific components. This approach helps avoid the huge expenditures associated with breakdowns, major accidents, larger-scale repairs, premature replacement of parts and unnecessary maintenance.
With fewer disruptions, operational and mechanical efficacy can be maximized, mitigating lost revenue and man-hours spent completing repairs.
With Burker’s preprogramed units, collection and testing are very straight forward.
1: Collect the sample and load in an XRF cup
2: Open CTX Lid and place sample on measurement window
3: Close CTX Lid
4: Press Run
5: Read Results on the LED touchscreen
The Science:
By systematically analyzing engine oil , a trend analysis can be performed to determine which elements are increasing. Knowing the composition of individual engine components, the trend can indicate which part of the engine is undergoing wear so that replacement can be planned and performed to avoid catastrophic failure.
Table 1. Example wear metals and their origin.
Indicator Element |
Engine |
Transmission |
Hydraulics |
Al - Aluminum |
Pistons, bearings |
Pumps, thrust washers |
Bearings, thrust plates |
Ti - Titanium |
Gas turbine parts, paint |
|
|
Cr - Chromium |
Rings, liners, exhaust valves, shaft plating, stainless steel |
Roller bearings |
Shaft |
Fe - Iron |
Cylinder liners, rings, crankshaft, valve train, oil pump gear |
Gears, disks, bearings, shaft |
Rods, cylinders, gears |
Ni - Nikel |
Valve plating, crankshaft, camshaft |
Roller bearings, shaft |
|
Cu - Copper |
Lube coolers, main and rod bearings, bushings, turbo bearings |
Bushings, clutch plates, lube coolers |
Bushings, clutch plates, lube coolers |
Pb - Lead |
Main and rod bearings, bushings, lead solder |
Bushings (bronze) |
Bushings (bronze) |
Sn - Tin |
Piston flashing, bearing overlay, bronze, Babbit metal |
Bearing cage |
|
Ag - Silver |
Wrist pin bushings, silver solder |
Torrington needle bearings |
Silver solder |
Detecting Additives and Contamination
In addition to wear metals, Bruker’s pre-programed units measure oil additives and contaminants that may come from dirt, antifreeze, and even seawater in offshore environments. All require monitoring for preventative maintenance purposes.
Loaded on the Bruker system is our customized Metals in Oil Calibration designed for multi-elemental analysis of oil-based liquid samples. The effective measurement range depends on the element. The standard calibration includes 20 elements (Mg, Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Ag, Sn, Ba and Pb) covering most typical wear metals, oil additives and contaminants. It can also be customized to include additional elements or extend measurement range.
