Large paper mills rely on continuous production to be profitable, thus unplanned down time is a huge financial burden. When unplanned downtime does occur and equipment must also be either repaired or replaced, the damages can feel exponential.
Topics: ISO 4406, case study, paper mill, filter elements
Pumps are the heart of hydraulic systems. When the pump fails, the entire system is down until the pump is operational again. This poses a serious threat to any operation relying on hydraulic systems for productivity.
Recently, a hydraulic valve manufacturer was losing 25 pumps a year on their centralized hydraulic system at a cost of $2,440 each -- and that’s only the pump cost. When you account for maintenance resources, lost oil and lost production, each failure costs ~$25,320.
Topics: hydraulic fluid, ISO 4406, breathers, case study, hydraulic pump
Today’s oil suppliers are often required to provide fluid at or below a specified ISO Cleanliness Code. One such supplier was experiencing short filter element life (15 days) on the system (7 element multi-round housing) used to achieve the required ISO Cleanliness Code of 18/16/13 in a single pass as 15W-40 oil is transferred from their bulk storage tanks to tanker trucks for delivery.
Topics: ISO 4406, filtration, breathers, offline filtration, case study, fluid transfer, DFE
An automotive stamping plant operating large presses to produce body panels was experiencing high surface finish defect scrap. Lubricating oil contamination was causing surface imperfections that would be visible after painting.
The uncoiler/washer lube oil system was protected by an off-line filtration system fitted with CJC stacked disc cellulose media filter inserts (elements). Oil analysis revealed an operating ISO code of 23/19/11. Patch analysis showed cellulose fibers were shedding into the oil from the filter inserts downstream of the filtration system.
Topics: ISO 4406, offline filtration, case study, fluid transfer, filters, DFE
An Australian aluminum refinery was consistently performing premature gearbox lube oil changes on seven base drive units due to oil and particulate contamination.
With an average operating ISO code of 20/18/16 and average water levels of 4742ppm, the 360 liters / 90 gallons of ISO VG320 gear oil was being changed far too often. Cost per gearbox oil change (excluding crane, lost production, labor) is $17,962.60 which adds up to $125,738.20 for all seven units.
Topics: ISO 4406, case study, gearbox, aluminum refinery
A hydraulic valve manufacturer required pristine fluid (< 14/12/9) to test flow across an 80-micron orifice on their test stand. Gross amounts of contamination in the fluid would skew the test results, invalidating any data collected.
The system held 100 l (26.4
Topics: ISO 4406, hydraulic valve, samples, hydraulic oil
Topics: contamination, ISO 16889, ISO 4406, samples, video, lab
Guest post today by Dan Helgerson. He is the Technical Editor of the Fluid Power Journal, where this article was originally published.
We have been talking a lot about filtration here at the steel mill. My predecessor had done a remarkable job in educating by example, demonstrating the need for good control of the fluids in our hydraulic and lubrication systems. He had helped stop the leaks and had added well-thought-out filtration systems that have resulted in substantial savings and increased productivity.
There is still a lot of work to be done and in pursuing that we have invited a number of vendors in, each offering an approach to getting and maintaining an acceptable fluid cleanliness level. The one thing that they all have brought to the table is a discussion of the ISO Cleanliness code. I was in a meeting with a group of managers when one vendor began to talk about the code. Being a Certified Fluid Power Accredited Instructor (AI), I immediately saw this as an obvious teaching moment, so I asked, “Does anyone here want to know what those numbers mean?” The answer was a quick and resounding, “No!”
Topics: iso cleanliness codes, ISO 4406
