The Economics of Purification
Particle contamination is the major source of mechanical wear and machine breakdown in all of industry. Numerous empirical research projects have sought to quantify the impact of particle contamination and the economic benefits of purification. Below is a look at two of the most interesting recent works on the impact of contamination and purification.
1. The effect of purity on critical component life (Jim Fitch, Noria Corp.)
Jim Fitch is one of the world’s leading experts on machinery lubrication. Noria Corp. trains and certifies more lubrication engineers than any organization in the world. Noria also publishes leading industry magazines Practicing Oil Analysis and Machine Lubrication. Fitch sought to quantify the effects of lubrication purity on the life of critical components. He used the standard 2-digit ISO code for fluid cleanliness (6-micron and 14-micron) and then compiled the results of other studies in regards to how changing ISO codes affected the lives of four critical components:
- Hydraulic and diesel engines
- Roller element bearings
- Journal bearings and turbo machinery
- Gear boxes and other
The results were amazing.
With roller bearings, Fitch found that by improving oil quality from 20/17 to 16/13, roller bearing life increased 2.5 times. If the oil quality is improved to 13/10 (a typical range for ISOPur BCA), roller bearing life increases 4 times. Other examples of component life increases (20/17 to 13/10) include:
Hydraulic and diesel engines:
Journal bearings and turbo machinery:
Gear boxes:
7.0 x increase in life
5.0 x increase in life
3.0 x increase in life
These are sample numbers from the Fitch study. A more comprehensive set of numbers may be obtained from Noria Corporation.
For companies with forward-thinking production and engineering teams, the impact of this study is monumental. Fluid purification can have a very important impact on critical component life. More reliable and longer lived components greatly reduce the risk of machine failure and plant shut downs. Such components also last longer and require longer replacement intervals. The study provides excellent validation for what most people already know – fluid purity has a tangible, bottom line impact.
2. The macro-impact of contamination (Ernest Rabinowicz, MIT)
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Mechanical Engineering department has some of the world’s foremost tribology (the study of wear and lubrication) experts. Dr. Ernest Rabinowicz, professor emeritus of this department, conducted a landmark study on the causes of industrial plant productivity losses. This study sought to understand what causes equipment to fail and production to halt, and then tried to assess the dollar impact of lost production. His study produced the following root cause analysis of machinery problems:
Application Summaries:
Boiler Feed Pump (Coal Power Plant) – Turkish Electric Generating Company evaluated the performance of the ISOPur® system by testing it at one of the EUAS plants and reported the positive results to all of the plants within EUAS.
Gas Turbine – Refined Sugar, Inc. has an independent power station on the premises for the purpose of refining sugar. This power plant generates half the plant electricity via a Caterpillar Solar gas turbine, which was experiencing sludge and varnish problems. Also review our Gas Turbine Application Brief.
Hydraulic Test Stand – A large manufacturer of automotive actuators and sensors was experiencing high rejection rates due to contamination of hydraulic fluid in a test stand.
Machine Tool – A manufacturer of highly precise devices that uses hydraulically driven forming machinery finds that contamination is affecting product yields.
Marine – In a study sponsored by Bath Iron Works, The marine vessel ‘State of Maine’ has three Ship Service Diesel Generators (SSDG) units, which require constant lubricating oil purification.
Power Plant – The Vero Beach Municipal Power Plant serves the City of Vero Beach, which demands stronger energy production because of the recent growth in the area.
Pulp & Paper – Kimberly Clark (Mexico) had sticking valves, production down-time, and product quality on their Industrial Paper Machine #4. All were quickly and drastically reduced by purifying the lubricating oil with ISOPur.
Pulp & Paper – A large, multi-national paper company was experiencing seven servo valve failures per year because of sticky contamination within the small valve clearances.
Steam Turbine – A major New England based pharmaceutical company’s co-generation power plant was regularly experiencing oil-related failures on four 6 megawatt steam turbines.
Servo Valve – At Yale University, constant sticking on servo valves caused frequent interruptions of three Nuovo Pignone PGT-5M Gas Turbines.
Tap Changer – Consolidated Edison, a regulated utility, was experiencing carbon buildup on the insulators as well as the copper contacts in their tap changers due to heavily contaminated transformer oil.
Turbo Compressor – A major global compressor manufacturer is constantly finding varnish problems during teardowns.