Correct lubricant selection is essential to good machine operation, and the use of high-quality oils like Mobil DTE 10 Excel 32 from a Mobil distributor can help achieve measurable improvements in hydraulic efficiency, but there’s more to good lubrication practices than just using the right oil. If you store your lubricants in your working area, you may be creating a number of problems for yourself.

Firstly, even if your operatives are very strict about closing and covering lubricant containers, there’s still a chance of contaminants getting in. After all, it can be practically impossible to keep some industrial environments clean. Secondly, lubricants can experience chemical degradation if stored in a harsh climate. Finally, lubricant spills can present a substantial slip hazard to a busy workplace. Fortunately, many of these problems can be avoided, or at least mitigated, by a good lube room.

Do the research

A good lube room involves more than just moving your new lubricants to a separate room, so a bit of research is needed first. The first task is to pick a suitable space. You’ll want something that’s not too far from where the lubricants are needed of course, but you’ll also want to make sure there’s no unnecessary foot traffic coming through. The fewer people entering the lube room, the easier it will be to keep it clean, which is one of the main reasons for having a dedicated lube room.

You’ll also want to make sure there’s plenty of space to store a sufficient stock of lubricants in an orderly manner. Organization is key here. What’s more, it’s not just about storing those 20 barrels of oil you ordered from your Mobil distributor. You may want to consider your processes for delivering clean lubricants accurately, which might mean extra space for transfer containers or dispensing machinery. You’ll also want cabinet space to store other lubricant-related items neatly, such as filters, grease guns and spray lubricants.

Prepare the space

In terms of safety, a nonslip floor is an essential. Lubricants are designed to reduce friction, so any floor will need a suitable level of slip resistance. Chemical-resistant flooring is also a good idea, and adequate lighting and relevant warning signs are obvious necessary safety features. A fire hose or other fire-suppressant system should also be available.

You may also want to consider if controlled access is needed. Do really you want all employees to have access to the lube room, or do you prefer to limit access to those who are adequately trained in lubricant handling? If it’s the latter, you will need a lockable door of some kind.

Finally, depending on the climate and the lubricants you use, you may want to install a HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning) system, because a controlled climate can help slow the chemical degradation of some lubricants. Leading Mobil distributors should be able to advise you on optimal storage conditions for your lubricants.

Once you’ve prepared the room and installed shelving, cabinets and any other necessary furniture, it’s then essential to get the cooperation of you personnel. You can have the best practices in the world, but your lube room will not be successful if your team doesn’t have the right attitude.

If you’ve recently established a lube room, or if you already have one but suspect it could be improved, here are a few tips for how you may be able to get more from it:

Determine your storage capacity

Preventing additive settling or contamination in lubricants is vital to good lubrication practices, and part of this is making sure you buy in the right amounts of lubricants, so they don’t sit too long. You need to base this on three factors:

• What is your rate of consumption? First, you need to analyse how fast you actually use lubricants. As a bonus, you may find instances of overuse that you can correct, such as by fixing leaks or preventing overly frequent drain and fills.
• How much do you need to store? Now you know your consumption rate, you can establish this. On the one hand, you’ll want to minimise stock to avoid items expiring, but on the other hand, you will want a certain percentage in reserve for emergencies.
• How frequently can your choice of Mobil stockists deliver? If it can supply you more frequently, you can justify a smaller lubrication inventory. If circumstances mean there is a considerable delay between deliveries, you need a larger inventory to get you between deliveries.

Consumption rate will also influence container sizes. For example, a low rate of consumption for a particular lubricant may indicate a preference for smaller containers in order to reduce the chance of contamination.

Rotate your lubricants

Inventory tracking in your lube room can help you to use your lubricants on a first-in, first-out basis, so the oldest stock is always used first.

Audit your lubricants

By performing a full audit of your lubrication, you may find you can consolidate some of your lubricants. For example, a mine in Decker, Montana found that it could consolidate its lubricants down to eight separate ones, which it then ordered in 65-gallon containers. It also reduced its greases to just six different types. By cooperating with your equipment providers and one of the many good Mobil stockists, you may discover opportunities to streamline your selection of lubricants.

Properly dispense new oil into transfer containers

Poorly dispensing new oils is a major cause of on-site contamination, so a rack-mounted storage system with a hard-plumbed filtration system and dedicated dispensing nozzles can be invaluable in delivering clean lubricants to the transfer containers with minimal exposure to environmental conditions.

Dispensing clean oil is one thing, but without adequate transfer containers, lubricants can become contaminated before they get to their destinations, especially if non-sealable transfer containers are used.

All transfer containers should therefore be washable and sealed from the environment with an integrated spout, hand pump, and so on. It’s also a good idea to colour code your transfer containers, so your operatives can easily identify the correct lubricant. As a bonus, this helps prevent different lubricants from being mixed when containers are reused too, and could form part of a larger labelling strategy to ensure the right lubricant can always be correctly identified.

The UK Government has held its reverse auction for energy production subsidies, and offshore wind power has come in cheaper than many expected.

In the reverse auction process, green energy companies bid for the lowest guaranteed energy price over a 15-year period. The winning companies then have a predictable income stream – independent of fluctuations in energy prices – on which to base their investment decisions. Should the wholesale price of electricity exceed the guaranteed price, the government will actually receive money.

Two new windfarms secured a record-low price of £57.50 per megawatt hour (MWh), which is about half the average price awarded in the previous 2015 auction and substantially below the £92.50 promised to EDF for its Hinckley Point C nuclear plant. It is also rather close to the current wholesale electricity price of around £40 per MWh, meaning the level of subsidy is much lower. Onshore wind is already thought to be competitive with gas in some areas, but onshore projects are no longer allowed to compete for subsidies.

While some believe the government should reconsider its approach to new nuclear, EDF is keen to point out the intermittency issues with wind power and stresses that nuclear power is still needed for a diverse, low-carbon energy mix.

The drastic drop in guaranteed prices reflects how the offshore wind industry has matured in recent years. Advances in scale are yielding greater efficiency, while new lubricants, such as Mobil SHC Gear 320 WT from Mobil UK distributors, also help protect equipment and reduce maintenance.

The right automatic transmission fluid (ATF) is essential to the smooth running of an automatic vehicle, but why?

It’s actually one of the most complex fluids you’re likely to find in a modern automobile, because an automatic transmission often involves hundreds of moving parts, as well as O-rings, seals, and gaskets. All of these need to be lubricated and protected under very demanding conditions.

What does an ATF do?

In addition to lubricating the moving parts and preventing wear, much like a traditional lubricant, an ATF plays many other roles to ensure smooth running and shifting.

Heat transfer

The interaction of transmission gears typically causes automatic transmissions to build up heat, which then needs to be dissipated. This is especially challenging in modern vehicles, where contemporary aerodynamic designs limit the airflow, and the problem only gets worse under heavy loads. The ATF therefore plays an essential role in transferring heat and enabling it to be dissipated efficiently.

Hydraulic actuation

In most automatic vehicles, the traditional friction clutch is replaced by a fluid (hydraulic) coupling or torque converter to transmit rotating mechanical power, with a system of planetary gears being hydraulically locked and unlocked to accomplish gear changes. This means in addition to its other roles, an ATF needs to act as a hydraulic oil.

Foam prevention

Foam is rarely desirable in a lubricated system. It typically hinders the process by preventing the oil from forming an adequate protective film over surfaces, but it has other serious consequences inside an automatic transmission. Foam compresses, and this can hinder or even prevent hydraulic actuation, which as mentioned above, is essential to most automatic transmissions.

How do ATFs differ?

The challenge faced by ATFs are already substantial, but it is made even more complicated by the varying designs used by different manufacturers. If an ATF is being drained and replaced by something like Mobil ATF LT 71141, it needs to be compatible with the manufacturer’s specification.

First of all, the components of different ATFs may be made from different materials, so the ATF needs to be compatible with all the materials in a particular transmission, otherwise some components may become damaged, leading to failure.

Secondly, different transmissions involve different shifting characteristics, such as the number of speeds and load-bearing requirements, which is another reason why manufacturers design oils especially for their products.

While synthetic oil generally offers some desirable properties, semi-synthetics like Mobil ATF LT 71141 often deliver similar benefits. The main concern, however, is to always use a compatible oil.

A hydraulic oil is basically an incompressible fluid that is used to transmit power within hydraulic systems. It has numerous applications in machinery that range from the brakes on your car, to the stabilisation system of a luxury cruise ship.

What is hydraulic oil made of?

Like most modern lubricants, hydraulic oil is more than just mineral oil. Depending on the application, it may be a blend of mineral oils, ethers, silicone, esters and various other chemicals to achieve the desired physical properties.

Likewise, extra additives are typically included to help the hydraulic oil do its job under varying conditions. Anti-wear additives help protect surfaces and lengthen the life of equipment, while anti-oxidant additives help slow down sludge deposits and reduce the frequency of oil changes. Anti-foaming agents are especially essential in hydraulic oils, because foam is compressible, thus limiting the hydraulic process. It also hinders effective lubrication.

In certain environments, anti-rust and anti-freeze additives may be particularly desirable to prevent oxidisation and allow operation in extremely cold conditions, respectively.

What’s the ISO Viscosity Grade (VG)?

The UK mostly uses the ISO system for grading hydraulic oils. The ISO VG determines the viscosity of the oil, which is basically how “thick” it is. A higher viscosity means the oil will be harder to move, but this can be desirable in some heavy-duty applications. Lubricant manufacturers generally make a range of hydraulic oils with different VGs to meet various needs.

ExxonMobil produces seven different oils in its Mobil DTE 20 Series. Mobil DTE 24, for example, has an ISO VG of 32 that would typically be suitable for applications like high-power machine tools, while Mobil DTE 25 has a slightly higher ISO VG of 46 that may be more suitable for a high-pressure industrial plant. In reality, there can be crossover in applications, so it’s always important to refer to the manufacturer’s suggested grade. Also, if you’re wondering why the series numbers don’t match the ISO VG, it’s because they relate to the kinematic viscosity rating at 40°C.

What about circulating oils?

If you’ve looked at lubricants like Mobil DTE Light and Mobil DTE Oil Heavy Medium, you’ll notice they are described as circulating rather than hydraulic oils, yet they are said to be suitable for moderate severity hydraulic pumps.

Does this mean you can use them instead of the DTE 20 series? This is something you should discuss with the equipment manufacturer and your lubricant supplier.

To maintain machine tool accuracy and productivity, it’s vital to minimise friction in slideways and prevent wear. This can be a challenge, however, because of the tendency of slideways to exhibit slip-stick motions.

When a slideway system has elasticity, the force needed to expand or compress a spring will likely differ from the force needed to move the desired object, resulting in a certain jerkiness in the movement. For example, when the mass is being pulled by spring, it will not move immediately because friction with the surface will resist it. Instead, the force will be loaded onto the spring until it overcomes this friction. At this point, the force held in the spring will be more than what is needed to move it, resulting in the jerky movement. This is where good lubrication comes in.

When selecting a slideway lubricant, there are a few factors to consider.

Vertical and horizontal slideways

Vertical and horizontal slideways typically require different properties from a lubricant to prevent it from escaping too quickly. In particular, vertical and inclined slideways are more inclined to runoff, so an oil with greater tackiness and viscosity, such as Mobil Vactra 3 or 4, will generally be more suitable than their horizontal counterparts like Mobil Vactra 2.

Material compatibility

While it may often be overlooked, it’s important to pick a lubricant that’s compatible with the surface materials it’s protecting. Different metals may require different additives or varying levels of lubrication, so you will want to pick one that’s designed for those metal (or even non-metal) surfaces.

Is the OEM-suggested lubricant always the best?

OEMs will generally recommend a particular lubricant for their machines, but this is not necessarily the optimal choice for every environment. If you are experiencing excessive wear with a machine, an expert may be able to suggest a better alternative lubricant. To avoid invalidating any warranty, make sure you obtain permission from the OEM before switching fluids.

Is a hydraulic oil needed?

If a slideway uses hydraulic systems, you may need oil that combines the desirable properties of slideway oil with those of a hydraulic oil. Mobile Vactra 2, for example, is suitable for use with horizontal slideways and as a moderate-duty hydraulic fluid.

Other desirable properties

Once you have identified some potential lubricants, there are a few characteristics that are also generally desirable. Adhesiveness, for example, will prevent a lubricant from being removed from important surfaces, while anti-wear and anti-corrosive additives can protect your equipment. You should also look for good load-carrying performance and general

More and more engineers are recognising the problem of lubrication-related equipment failures, yet many managers still underestimate the importance of adequate lubrication. You can of course take steps to improve your lubrication practices, such as by consulting your Mobil stockist to check you are using the most suitable lubricants for your equipment. You may even be able to consolidate some lubricants to simplify the process. You can also establish good practices like a dedicated lube room with suitable equipment for your highly trained lube technicians.

Despite all this, though, any oil will eventually need to be drained and filled, leading to downtime and maintenance costs, but failing to do it in a timely fashion will result in even more unscheduled downtime from equipment failure. So, when can you decide when oil needs changing? Oil analysis can help detect when an oil change is needed, but it can also detect a number of other lubrication issues.

What is oil analysis?

Oil analysis is basically a laboratory analysis of the oil currently being used by equipment. This will typically include details about the condition of the oil in the form of viscosity, foreign bodies, and the levels of the various additives that enable the oil to work effectively. Interpreting this data enables lube technicians to make informed decisions about when an oil change is needed for a piece of equipment. This can help save considerable sums, especially in cases where the cost of an oil change can run into the thousands.

What other problems can oil analysis detect?

Oil analysis can also help detect various other lubrication problems. For example, it can help detect if excessive wear is occurring in a piece of machinery and help you identify the source of the problem. Common problems can be moisture and dirt getting into the oil. In addition, while incorrect oil top-ups should be minimised through good practices, mistakes may still occur. These can cause problems, especially when the new oil has a drastically different viscosity or an additive mix that is insufficient or maybe even harmful to your equipment.

How do you perform an oil analysis?

There are two basic forms of oil analysis, namely onsite and offsite testing. With onsite testing, you invest in the equipment and staff needed to analyse lubricants at your facility, potentially in a very timely fashion. With offsite testing, you bottle lubricant samples and send them to a commercial laboratory for testing. This may increase the lead time for the analysis results. Commercial labs, however, will typically have invested in much more specialised and expensive machinery and will be able to offer a wider range of tests than the average onsite lab, so even when you invest in your own machinery, you may still need to send some samples to an external lab.

When you source your lubricants through a Mobil stockist, you can take advantage of the Mobil Serv lubricant analysis programme. While Mobil has been helping customers with oil analysis for years already, this new programme uses a “Scan and Go” system to drastically streamline the oil analysis process. Firstly, the need for labelling is removed by using bottles with a pre-printed QR bar code and unique numeric identifier. Similar labels are also attached to each piece of equipment. When a lube technician extracts an oil sample, he or she simply uses a provided mobile app to scan the QR codes on the bottle and the equipment. This information will then be available to the Mobil laboratory when it receives the physical sample. Once Mobil completes its analysis, lube technicians can access the results and personalised recommendations from a connected mobile device or computer.

Mobil claims this revolutionary approach can drastically reduce the labour requirement for an oil analysis program. The company points to a Texas-based alumina production company that reduced the time spent on oil analysis by 66%. As part of its preventative maintenance programme, this company collected more than 150 samples a month and submitted them for analysis. This process typically took 24 hours a month to perform, with filling and printing out sample labels taking up much of this time. After switching to Mobil Serv, the whole process took up only eight hours a month.

How do you correct problems?

If an oil analysis identifies any issues in your equipment lubrication, there may be some simple interventions you can make that will generate a good return on investment.

For example, switching the OEM breather cap or dust cap on a piece of equipment to a rated desiccant air breather can help reduce excessive water levels. This uses desiccant beads to remove harmful moisture from air as it is drawn into the machinery during use. The beads also draw moisture out of the reservoir, even when the equipment is out of use. This leads to drier oil, which in turn helps improve equipment reliability. In addition, rated desiccant air breathers can also offer superior protection against small particulates, leading to cleaner oil.

More severe water contamination may require a bit more effort, but a good place to start is by checking the seals on hatches and inspection ports, upgrading them when warranted. An offline filter cart with a filter capable of water adsorption may also be an option.

If incorrect oil tops-ups are proving to be a common problem, look at enhancing your procedures to minimise mistakes. One idea is to attach tags to lubrication ports that use symbols or colours that are matched on the dispensing equipment. Assuming that your lube room ensures the correct lubricants in different dispensing devices, your technicians will easily be able to check they are performing a suitable top-up.

Finally, when it comes to poor oil condition, a timely oil change at a convenient time will usually be required. For particularly expensive oil changes, however, you may want to take advantage of more advanced tests to see if this can be delayed a few months.

Once you implement any changes, you should then monitor subsequent analyses to confirm there is a decreasing trend in the original problem.

While advancements in renewable energy are helping to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, oil and gas are not going anywhere soon. We still need petroleum products to fuel aviation and most of the transport on our roads. We also need crude oil to make materials like plastic and medicines, but extracting crude oil is an inherently messy business that has taken its toll on the environment in the past.

Fortunately, practices have improved over the past half century, and advances in technology for the exploration, production, and transportation of hydrocarbons, combined with tighter regulation and enforcement, have helped to reduce, or entirely avoid, the negative effects of oil and gas production.

Here are some of the recent advances that have helped create today’s cleaner oil and gas industry.

Exploration

While exploring for oil can disturb the ecosystem, both at land and sea, recent advances have not only helped improve the efficiency of exploratory operations—they have also helped reduce the impact from them. For example, small, mobile rigs for slim-hole drilling can reduce the area affected by exploratory drilling, while innovations such as 3-D and 4-D seismic technologies, remote sensing devices, and GPS have enabled the continued discovery of new oil reserves with less exploratory drilling.

Production

Technological advances like directional drilling, horizontal wells, and hydraulic fracking have aided oil production, but they have also contributed to more environmentally friendly practices. The abundance of shale gas in the US, for example, has enabled the country to incorporate more natural gas into its energy mix and substantially reduce its carbon dioxide emissions.

The advent of directional drilling and horizontal wells has also enabled a single well to cover a much larger area, reducing the area affected on the surface by drilling activities and enabling operators to consolidate equipment into fewer locations. ExxonMobil has taken this a step further with extended-reach drilling, which it uses for the Sakhalin-1 project off the coast of eastern Russia. By using these long wells, offshore fields can be accessed by drilling rigs on land, which not only improves production but also reduces the environmental risks involved and leaves the marine environment untouched.

Oil production is usually accompanied by natural gas, and in the absence of a way to process or use it, it was often flared or vented into the atmosphere in the past. Upstream oil operators have also worked on reducing their methane leakage in recent years, with a study by the University of Texas and the Environmental Defense Fund estimating methane leakage at a comfortable level of around 1.5%. Statoil, for example, is also using extracted natural gas to power onsite equipment, meaning less is flared, and some shale producers are doing something similar to power their compression operations. In addition, more infrastructure is being built to process this energy source into useful products like liquified natural gas, enabling it to be transported without pipelines.

Transportation

Anyone who is old enough will remember the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. This tragic accident marked a low point in ExxonMobil’s long history, but the company was quick to assume responsibility and spent over four billion dollars in the aftermath. More importantly, ExxonMobil, which also produces industrial lubricants for Mobil distributors, comprehensively reformed its operations to prevent future such incidents.

The following year, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was passed by the US Congress, requiring all new tankers intended for use at US ports to have a full double hull. This measure was also later adopted by the International Maritime Organization, and it is believed to have greatly contributed to the significant drop in oil spills from ships over the 1990s.

Some logical measures have also helped reduced the truck traffic needed for shale producers in the US. For example, the Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. detailed in 2014 how it was minimising the environmental impact of its Colorado drilling, fracking, and production operations. It basically consolidated its operations into a smaller footprint, which would always be served by a pipeline. This reduced the need for diesel trucks to carry water and oil to and from production sites. It also used natural gas from nearby wells to power its fracking operations, again eliminating the need for diesel trucks to deliver fuel.

The creation of new reefs at closed offshore wells

When an oil field becomes depleted, continued production inevitably becomes economically unfeasible. The well is therefore plugged and older rigs are often decommissioned. These are then toppled and left to sink to the sea floor. They then soon become covered with various sea creatures— such as sponges, barnacles, clams, and coral—forming an artificial reef that attracts marine life and boosts fish populations. This also provides new recreational opportunities for divers and fishers.

Oil companies do more than just oil

Many major oil companies have diversified their operations in recent years. Examples of this include Scotland’s new Hywind offshore windfarm, whose revolutionary floating turbines were built by Statoil, Norway’s state energy company. Shell, meanwhile, has been investing in new windfarm projects and helping them to get off the ground.

In addition, ExxonMobil, the supplier behind Mobil distributers, has been pursuing using algae as a sustainable source of biofuel. This potentially offers a number of advantages over food-based biofuels. For example, it could be grown on land unsuitable for food production, it does not require fresh water, and it can result in much greater yields when compared with other biofuel sources. Moreover, the oil from algae can be processed in conventional petroleum refineries for use in existing diesel engines with only minor modifications, making it extremely practical.

While oil production has traditionally been regarded as a dirty business, things are clearly changing in this regard, as oil companies have become keener to demonstrate their corporate responsibility in recent decades by developing methods and technologies that not only improve their bottom lines but also reduce the damage to the ecosystems around drilling operations, demonstrating the industry’s resourcefulness.

The lubricants industry is certainly not a static one. As technological advances in industrial machinery create ever greater demands, manufacturers have stepped in with new lubricants that can perform in heavy-duty applications and harsh environments, sometimes even with a long oil life.

Synthetic lubricants, for example, have revolutionised lubrication in some applications where mineral lubricants struggled to perform in the past.

Here are some recent advances in the world of lubrication. While you may not be able to order such products from Mobil industrial lubricants distributors quite yet, they may become commonplace before too long.

Hydro lubricants

Water is generally regarded as an undesirable contaminate in industrial lubricants, but one German lubrication manufacturer has come up with a water-based lubricant that it claims will revolutionise lubrication in certain applications; for example, it could mean that industrial gearboxes will be topped up with water rather than oil in future.

So, why hasn’t water already been used as a base for industrial lubricants? After all, it’s abundantly available on our planet, is not toxic, and does not burn. According to the company’s head of research and product development, Dr. Stefan Seemeyer, water has generally been overlooked because of its susceptibility to freeze and evaporate, as well as the oxidation and microbiological growth it can cause.

Despite these limitations, Dr. Seemeyer points out:

“By means of additives in the lubricant or technical solutions at the component concerned, these limits can be shifted, and the water-specific effects rendered beneficially usable. With a water-based product concept, we’ve even been able to reduce the friction involved far enough to bring the range of ‘super-lubricity’ within reach.”

With the barriers to hydro lubricants apparently having been addressed, you may wonder what benefits water can bring as lubricant ingredient. Firstly, using water as the base ingredient enables new ingredients to be used that would otherwise not be soluble in oil. This could potentially open up new levels of performance for certain applications that were previously thought impossible. Secondly, water’s physical properties could be useful in some applications; for example, its electrical conductivity could mean hydro lubricants would be useful to the electric transport industry.

While the potential applications of this new technology are still being explored, it is already being used in one lubrication product for conveyor belts.

Ultra-low friction without additives

Modern lubricants contain additives to achieve ultra-low friction by helping oil molecules bond to metal surfaces and form a protective film. The downside of this is that machinery oil needs additive levels to be monitored and topped up when necessary, possibly through a drain and replace. But what if ultra-low friction was possible without these additives?

This is exactly what researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology claim to have found. In their tests, the researchers blasted the surfaces of cast iron blocks with a blend of copper sulphide and aluminium oxide. This process chemically modified the surface and changed how oil molecules bonded with it, which in turn improved lubricity. According to Michael Varenberg at Georgia Tech, this happens because:

“Making the surface more active chemically by deforming it allows for replacement reaction to form iron sulphide on top of the iron. And iron sulphides are known for very strong bonds with oil molecules.”

The published results show the technique can outperform the top commercial oils on the market and is only matched by lubricants based on tungsten disulphide-based nanoparticles. Varenberg clearly expresses his belief in the new process by saying:

“Moreover, our finding may result in a paradigm shift in the art of lubrication and initiate a whole new direction in surface science and engineering due to the generality of the idea and a broad range of potential applications.”

Better solid lubricants

Solid lubricants are commonly used in many applications, such as drilling rigs, the hydraulic motors of cranes and winches, food industry equipment and space vehicles. Even modern liquid lubricants are unsuitable for extreme operating environments, such as low-pressure and high-temperature situations, so engineers have needed to turn to solid lubricants.

Solid lubricants often have a number of drawbacks when compared to liquid lubrication, however, such as poor self-healing properties and a greater degree of friction of wear. This may change with a development at Purdue University, however. Researchers have developed a new solid lubricant that, according to Vilas Pol of Purdue University:

“…has superior thermal conductivity, high strength and provides ultralow friction.”

While graphene is already commonly used as a solid lubricant, the new lubricant combines this with zinc oxide and the polymer polyvinylidene difluoride. The zinc oxide facilitates adhesion to the surface, while the polyvinylidene difluoride acts as a binding agent for the mixture. The end result is a durable and resilient coating that offers great potential for lubricating bearings in high-load applications.

While the above innovations may revolutionise industrial lubrication in some areas, many smaller advances are constantly being made by lubricant manufacturers like Mobil in terms of formulations that improve the efficiency, reduce the unscheduled downtime, and simplify the maintenance routine of industrial equipment. Mobil industrial lubricants distributors should be able to offer advice on whether you can benefit from more advanced lubricants in your operations.

Other advances have enabled easier monitoring of oil quality. Equipment is now available for easy on-site testing of oil condition, while lubricant makers like Mobil offer off-site oil condition testing with a rapid turnaround. Technicians can now make informed decisions about when a full drain and fill is required, potentially avoiding the unnecessary cost of a premature oil change and the equipment damage that can occur from a late change.

While technology can play a big role in getting the most from an industrial setup, it’s still important to get the low-tech stuff right. Even something as simple as colour-coded lubricant dispensers can help by avoiding problems that occur from incorrect top-ups. On accessing the wealth of advice available from Mobil industrial lubricants distributors, you may find out that you can consolidate your necessary oils and greases into a fewer number of products, potentially saving you money and simplifying maintenance procedures.

Industrial lubrication is not always a simple matter, so here are answers to some questions that you may be tempted to ask Mobil distributors in the UK.

Does the colour of grease mean anything?

If you’ve ever handled greases, you may notice they can come in a wide variety of colours. Some have a pale natural colour, while others are grey or back, and some even come in distinctive colours like deep red and blue. So, does the colour say anything about the quality and type of grease?

There is no industry standard for colour coding greases, so you can’t judge anything based on colour alone. The ingredients in the grease often affect the colour. Some tend to be naturally pale, and these are often dyed by manufacturers to help operators to identify the correct grease, although this will depend on using Mobil greases exclusively, for example, because other manufacturers may use a different color-coding scheme. Dyed greases are also not suitable for some applications, such as paper mills, because of the risk of staining.

Greases based on certain ingredients, such as graphite, may appear black. In short, grease colour should never be relied on alone. If you have any doubt, always double check that you are using the correct product for the application at hand.

How often should you re-grease equipment and by how much?

Re-greasing equipment is an essential maintenance issue, but it can be tricky to get the quantity correct sometimes. It logically follows that under-greasing will lead to lubrication starvation and greater wear on equipment, but over-greasing can also cause the problem of overheating in some high-speed applications.

If the equipment manual does not specify anything about re-greasing frequency and quantity, you can try asking the equipment manufacturer directly. If you still cannot obtain any guidance about re-greasing, many Mobil distributors in the UK will be able to help you develop a re-greasing strategy based on factors such as grease type, equipment, operating and environmental conditions, and any external contaminants. You may also be able to refine your strategy further based on operating data and information gleaned from tear-down inspections.

Should you change oil to adapt to the different seasons?

When temperatures can vary widely between the seasons, it’s often common practice in industrial sectors to swap to and from a lower viscosity oil to compensate. Unfortunately, unless this coincides with a required oil change, it means extra downtime and additional cost due to wasted oil. Switching to oil with a high-viscosity index, such as the Mobil DTE 10 Excel Series hydraulic oils, can provide consistent protection over a wider temperature range, which may well remove the need for seasonal oil changes.

Can high-quality lubricants improve cold starts?

More energy is used during a cold start than any other part of the operating cycle, because the oil has not had the chance to warm up, and hydraulic pumps are particularly prone to failure at this point. Modern lubricants like the Mobil DTE 10 Excel Series of hydraulic oils can operate effectively at temperatures as low as 8°C, with some even providing a suitable viscosity at temperatures as low as -34°C.

Is it worth using high-quality lubricants on older equipment?

While you may be tempted to only invest in high-quality lubricants for your new equipment, many older machines can also benefit. Some modern lubricants have been shown to maintain system reliability for longer, meaning you can get more out of that older equipment for longer.

Is viscosity important in grease?

The viscosity of grease is not as immediately obvious as it is with lubricating oils because of its semisolid nature, yet grease is still mostly made from base oils, and viscosity is an important factor in determining the optimal product for an application.

Viscosity measures a fluid’s resistance to flow, and this is important in greases because you want a thick enough film to just prevent any metal-to-metal contacts. Too thin a film results in excessive wear, while too thick of a film causes additional drag, which means greater heat generation and lower efficiency.

If you try and visually assess the viscosity of grease, you’ll instead learn more about its consistency (which is not to be confused with viscosity, but you can learn more below). The simplest way to make sure you’re using a grease with the right viscosity is to check the technical information.

What about consistency in grease?

As mentioned above, the viscosity doesn’t affect the observable behaviour of greases like it does with liquid oil, yet some greases are clearly “thicker” than others. It may be tempting to think a “thicker” grease has a higher viscosity, but this thickness is actually the consistency. This is an entirely different physical property that is determined by the amount of thickening agent that is used in the formulation and measured according to the NLGI rating ranging from 000 (a soft consistency similar to that of cooking oil) to 6 (a very hard consistency similar to that of cheddar cheese). Mobil distributors in the UK often offer Mobil products with a choice of different NLGI ratings.

As with most lubricant properties, the required consistency will depend on the nature of the application. Thinner greases are easier to pump, while thicker greases tend to stay in place better and are inherently more resilient to high temperature and water washout. In many cases, picking the right consistency will be a balance between pumpability and having enough staying power for the particular operating conditions.

What else can Mobil distributors in the UK do for you?

The questions here are by no means an exhaustive list of what a Mobil distributor might be able to tell you. If you feel you may be able to benefit from improved lubrication, why not see what yours can do for you? Higher quality lubricants, for example, may come at a greater cost, but you may find this pays for itself in increased reliability, reduced maintenance, and improved uptime. Your distributor may also offer other lubrication services, such as operator training, oil condition monitoring, and lubrication surveys.

Upgrading to advanced lubricants from Mobil distributors can be a good step in improving the reliability and efficiency of your machinery, but achieving lubrication excellence involves more than just using the right product. Here are some tips that may benefit your lubrication strategy:

1. Have everything you need

a) Foster a new attitude

Fundamentally overhauling a lubrication strategy needs ongoing commitment from management and technicians. People generally resist major change, and the temptation may be there to slip back into ‘business as usual’. You may need something akin to a cultural change to get everyone fully on board, so you should have a cohesive and well-designed plan for what you wish to accomplish, and you need to be aware that it may take time to fully implement it. Emphasize the need for this change, so everyone can understand why it is so important and get fully behind it.

b) Don’t underestimate training

Investing in better quality oils and tools for their efficient delivery and maintenance is important, but don’t overlook the training your team may need to put your procedures into practice. Training and practical skills are important for your programme, so they should be commended, praised, and reinforced whenever possible.

Education can also bring a team together with its common goals, and senior members can act as coaches for their less experienced counterparts. Good maintenance skills are also important for improving machine reliability and reducing unscheduled downtime.

c) Consider your lubrication needs

Think carefully about which lubricants and services you need, preferably in coordination with your Mobil distributor. Buying cheaper oils is often a false economy, and it may cost you more in the long term due to more frequent oil changes, lower efficiency, and greater downtime. That said, better lubricants do not necessarily help remedy poor lubrication practices, so make sure you put the horse before the cart in this regard.

Machinery also needs a sustained supply of a suitable lubricant, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that any oil or grease will do. It’s possible, however, that some of your oils and greases can be consolidated into a fewer number of products to simplify the supply and handling process. This is something you should discuss with the machinery manufacturer and your Mobil distributor.

It’s also possible that oil viscosity specified in the service manual is not necessarily the optimal choice for a piece of machinery. Operational conditions sometime wary widely from the designer’s original intentions, and using a different viscosity, under guidance from the manufacturer or other qualified entity, may improve performance and reliability. In short, do not just assume the recommended lubricant is always the best choice.

When it comes to upgrading to synthetic oils, this can bring great benefits, but it should be matched to machinery needs for optimal results. If you’re transitioning from a mineral-based oil, you should also be prepared to flush the system to prevent any possible incompatibilities with residual oil.

2. Handling lubricants

Top-class lubrication is not a complex notion; you simply need to have the correct lubricants where they are needed, when they are needed, and in the quantity they are needed, all while keeping them dry, clean, and cool.

a) Have a well-designed lube room

Having lubricants lying around an industrial environment is asking for trouble, so a well-designed room especially for them is often a pre-requisite for lubrication excellence. This room should be safe and clean with room for expansion, and you may wish to control access so only qualified personnel can use it.

As well as storing lubricants, you will also need equipment to safely dispense them, such as filtered pump systems and transfer containers. You may also want to install some kind of climate control to maximise the effective life of your lubricants.

When oil drums and other large containers arrive at your facility, they should be inspected for damage before being carefully transported to the lube room. Any damage in the container can lead to leakage and allow contamination to enter the oil.

b) Use lubricants on a first-in, first-out basis

Both oils and greases can have a limited shelf life, and they may be less effective or even useless once this expires. Using lubricants on a first-in, first-out basis will help prevent products from expiring, and your lube room practices should be oriented towards this.

c) Create simple guidelines

It’s easier to maintain lubrication excellence if you have simple guidelines that are easy for your team to follow. For example, something as straightforward as colour coding your transfer containers, matched with corresponding labels on machinery, will greatly assist your team in locating the correct lubricant and prevent a variety of lubrication errors.

Different technicians often have their own ideas about what constitutes best practice, and these can sometimes very considerably from industry-defined best practices. You therefore need to define what the best practice for your case really is and ensure that everyone applies it uniformly.

d) Use portable filter carts

Portable filter carts can help ensure that new fluid is clean before it is introduced into a system. It should never be simply assumed that a new oil is clean; there may be initial contamination in the oil, or water and particulate contamination may have occurred during storage and handling.

A portable filter cart is not limited to removing contamination during the transfer process—it can also condition existing fluids in systems. It also has other applications, such as flushing fluids following a repair and rebuild, and draining a reservoir.

e) Ensure proper lubricant disposal

Good lubricant handling is not just about putting it into service. Every oil will eventually exceed its usable life, and at this point, your team should ensure it is collected and disposed of in a safe way that will avoid harming the environment.

f) Consider if an oil heater is needed

Low ambient temperatures sometimes prevent oils from remaining fluid, so depending on the machinery, an oil heater may be needed. Oil heaters can sometimes be counterproductive for both lubricants and the machinery, however, so seek professional advice before installing one.

Tomorrow, we’ll have a look at more ways to make the most of your lubrication practices.

The post Tips from Mobil distributors to improve your lubrication practices – part 1 appeared first on Oil Store.

Following on from yesterday’s blog post, here are some more suggestions for how to enhance your lubrication strategy:

1. Oil analysis

Oil analysis can be an invaluable tool in predicting failures and formulating proactive interventions, but only when it’s applied correctly.

a) Get your sampling methods right

Taking reliable and repeatable samples is vital for gaining value from oil analysis. With inconsistent data from varying samples, you will have trouble trying to gauge when something is amiss.

b) Don’t forget your senses

Oil analysis and other tools provide high-tech ways to monitor the condition of machinery, but don’t forget about your eyes, nose and ears. Your basic senses can tell you a lot without the need for technological tools and the training to use them. Most operators are familiar with the machines they use on a daily basis, so they sense when a machine is making an abnormal sound, emitting an unusual odour, or making an odd movement. A technician can then be called in to investigate the problem further.

c) Use oil analysis to schedule oil changes

Rather than scheduling oil changes based on calendar months, let the actual oil condition, as determined through analysis, inform your decisions about scheduling changes. On the one hand, this can reduce the number of oil changes needed, saving you money in terms of the amount of oil you need to order from your Mobil distributor and minimising scheduled downtime. On the other hand, it lowers the risk of delaying an oil change for too long, which in turn can damage equipment and lead to failure.

d) Oil analysis is as much about presentation

The raw data from oil analysis isn’t necessarily informative, so be sure to use suitable computer software to get it in a presentable, easy-to-understand form, possibly with the use of multimedia formats.

e) Have your oil analysis lab routinely checked

It’s tempting to think of your oil analysis lab as being steadfast and reliable, producing reports that are beyond refute, but it can malfunction just like any piece of equipment. Have it checked on a regular basis so you can depend on its findings.

f) Consider off-site testing

If you prefer not to invest in your own oil analysis lab, think about using an off-site testing service instead. Even if you have your own lab, off-site labs may be able to offer more comprehensive testing. If you source your oils through Mobil distributors, you could consider joining the Mobil Serv programme, which uses QR codes on pre-printed sample bottles and the machinery being evaluated, combined with smartphone technology, to eliminate the need for manual labelling. The results of the subsequent off-site analysis can then be checked online later.

g) New oils may need testing too

There is a real risk of receiving incorrect lubricants, so it’s a good idea to test new oils on receipt to ensure they meet the required specification rather than put your equipment at risk.

h) Trending data can also help

Looking at a snapshot of oil condition at just one point in time tells you only part of the story. If you look at the trends over multiple oil reports, you can make better predictions about when the oil condition will become unfavourable.

i) Use multiple sampling locations

It’s common for hydraulic and circulating systems to have primary and secondary sampling locations. When samples are taken from both, it helps in tracking the problem to the right component.

2. Machinery practices

Using high-quality lubricants can help extend change intervals, but this will not happen if oil quickly becomes contaminated once it’s deployed. Some good practices can help improve this.

a) Identify the correct oil level for new machinery

When new machinery arrives at your facility, work out the correct oil level and make sure it is clearly indicated in the field. This will help avoid the problems of over filling or under filling later on.

b) Keep leaks under control

Keeping on top of leaks will save you money in terms of lubricant requirements, but it will also improve the reliability and safety of equipment. There’s generally a reason why a system is leaking, so analyse the whole thing and root out the cause of the leak.

c) Don’t overgrease, and take it slowly

As well as costing you more in wasted grease that needs to be reordered from your Mobil distributor, overgreasing can have negative effects, just like undergreasing, so it’s best to stick to the prescribed amount of grease for a particular activity. You’ll also want to apply a constant force when applying grease, because an overly rapid action can cause oil to bleed in the feed line, or grease to leak through labyrinth seals.

d) Don’t run overheated hydraulic equipment

Just like continuing to drive your car when the temperature warning light comes on, running a system with overly hot hydraulic fluid is sure to end in failure. Whenever you notice that a hydraulic system is over temperature, shut it down as soon as possible and remedy the source of the problem.

e) Take extra care with machine-critical equipment

Any changes in the lubrication decisions for machine-critical equipment should only be done under the most skilful consideration.

f) Be aware of the type of the bearing being lubricated

It’s important to know the type of the bearing being greased; for example, shielded bearings can be regreased, but it needs to be performed slowly to avoid over-pressurising the cavity. In contrast, you cannot regrease sealed bearings.

g) Minimise air in systems

While you’ll never entirely eliminate air from a lubricated system, you should try to reduce it as much as possible. This should help improve the system performance, as well as extend oil life and reduce wear.

h) Be wary of water contamination

Water can be a very dangerous contaminate, and it should certainly be routinely monitored in important, mission-critical equipment. Note that while many people believe that water reduces the viscosity of a fluid, a sufficiently large volume of it can actually be whipped into the oil to form a stable emulsion, sometimes leading to a dramatic increase in viscosity.

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Circulating and hydraulic oils

Different series within the Mobil DTE range are targeted at different applications. First, circulating oils are designed for systems that provide a sustained flow of lubrication to gearboxes and blowers, as well as bearings that often carry a high load and must operate at high speeds and temperatures. Next, hydraulic oils differ from standard oils in that not only must they provide lubrication and protect equipment, but they must also act as the power-transfer medium in hydraulic systems.

There may be some crossover between products and applications. For example, a circulating oil may also be suitable for use in a moderate-severity hydraulic pump, but it’s important to ensure you use an oil that’s entirely suitable for your specific application, so always consult your Mobil distributor for advice on suitable lubricants.

Mobil DTE Named series

The Mobil DTE Named series is, as the name suggests, identified by names such as Light, Medium, Heavy Medium, and Heavy rather than numbers. They are high-performance circulating lubricants that are formulated for demanding applications like hydro and steam turbines, as well as other systems where a long oil life is preferred. A system of additives ensures good anti-wear properties and protects against corrosion and rust, even from sea water. The use of highly refined base oils also provides for a high viscosity index, meaning that viscosity changes less with temperature and thus less power loss occurs during the warm-up process.

Many operators choose to use the Mobil DTE Named series because they have a reputation for delivering outstanding equipment protection and long oil life in a wide range of industrial settings. They have been employed in applications such as hydro and steam turbines; circulation systems that involve valves pumps, valves, and supplementary systems; and rotary air and natural gas compressors.

Mobil DTE 20 series

These high-performance hydraulic oils are designed to meet the rigorous demands of hydraulic systems, which often employ high-pressure, high-output pumps. Their suitability for a wide variety of hydraulic systems often enables users to employ a single oil in multiple applications without compromising performance.

The features of Mobil DTE 20 include:

• Defence from small and large volumes of water through controlled demulsibility
• Protection against the wear and corrosion of system components.
• Reduced maintenance and downtime costs thanks to a cleaner system and fewer deposits, which also helps extend oil life.

Mobil DTE 10 Excel Series

Much like its cousin the Mobil DTE 20 series, the Mobil DTE 10 Excel series is made up of high performance anti-wear hydraulic oils, yet these are designed to better satisfy the requirements of contemporary, high pressure, industrial hydraulic systems and mobile equipment.

Laboratory test have also revealed Mobil DTE 10 Excel oils to exhibit a 6% improvement in hydraulic efficiency when compared to Mobil DTE 20 equivalents. In practice, this can lead to improved output or reduced energy consumption. It has also been shown to outlast its conventional Mobil equivalents by up to three times and operate in temperatures as low as -34°C thanks to its high viscosity index.

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Iraq has begun soliciting bids for a new $4 billion project to boost production at its southern oil fields. The intention is that seawater will be injected into the fields to accelerate the removal of the remaining crude. According to the director-general of the state-run Basra Oil Co., Abdul Jabbar, five companies have already shown interest in constructing a facility to double output at the country’s Majnoon field.

Last month in Berlin, the Iraqi Oil Ministry’s director-general for upstream oil contracts, Abdul Mahdy Al-Ameedi, said the country has engaged with PetroChina Co. and ExxonMobil, the manufacturer of lubricants for Mobil UK distributors, about areas of the project.

Iraq is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer. While it pumped 4.43 million bpd in February, a dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region has affected exports through a pipeline to Turkey. The country is looking to offset this by boosting sales from its rich southern fields.

Iraq is also looking at building an export and storage facility off its Gulf coast. While the country already has a Gulf export terminal, rough weather can lead to waiting times for tankers once the weather abates. Adding a second terminal should mean all vessels can immediately start loading again. This will form part of Iraq’s strategy to maintain an export capacity greater than production, which officials say is needed to ensure enough flexibility in cases of disruption.

While Iraq is committed to the current OPEC-led production cuts, it sees its oil production capacity reaching five million bpd by the end of 2019.

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Recently published government figures reveal that wind power met 14.7% of the country’s total demand in 2017, setting a new record.

It was also a good year for renewables in general, with renewable sources—including bioenergy, hydro, solar, and offshore and onshore wind—meeting almost 30% of total demand, up a quarter on the previous year. Renewables are now second only to gas in the amount of power being generated annually.

While all renewable sources generated more power in 2017, wind power is emerging as a dominant force, with combined offshore and onshore wind power providing about half of all renewable generation. Last year saw offshore and onshore wind power generation grew by 27.3% and 37%, respectively, compared with more modest increases of 10.2% for both solar and hydro.

Improvements in areas like production costs and efficiency design, as well as the use of advanced lubricants from Mobil UK stockists, have led to wind power becoming increasingly price competitive. In the last round of reverse auctions, two offshore projects were awarded contract for difference (CfD) deals at less than half the price (£57.50/MWh) of the two projects that won deals 19 months earlier. This demonstrates the rapid progress being made with offshore wind, but some people make the case that onshore wind should be again allowed to compete for subsidies. This could benefit consumers in terms of lower bills, because onshore wind, when suitably located, is believed to be the cheapest way to add new power capacity.

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When you order a high-performance hydraulic lubricant like Mobil DTE 25, you can be sure you’re doing the best for your machinery, but no lubricant lasts forever, especially when environmental contamination can be a factor.

In fact, contaminated hydraulic fluid is a frequent cause of breakdowns, which then often lead to lost production from unscheduled downtime and costly repairs. To prevent this from happening, you may be tempted to conclude that your Mobil oil needs to be changed more frequently. While this is certainly needed sometimes, excessive oil changes lead to more scheduled downtime and greater costs. It’s also not doing the environment any favours. What’s more, if contamination is an ongoing problem, your new oil may quickly become contaminated.

Renewing the hydraulic system filters more frequently may also seem like a good way to ensure contaminants are effectively filtered out. Unfortunately, this can also cause considerable downtime, especially when filters are embedded deep in the system and require some dismantling before they can be accessed. This can therefore also turn out to be rather expensive.

Fortunately, there is an effective way to deal with contamination without the downtime associated with oil and filter changes. Bypass filtration units can be used to filter a machine’s hydraulic oil as it continues running. It does this by extracting a small amount of oil from the machine’s reservoir at a time and passing it through various filters. The filtered oil is then sent back to the system. Not only does this delay the need for a full oil change, subject to Mobil’s recommend oil life of course—the reduced contamination should mean the system’s own filters last longer.

Bypass filtration units are suitable for the vast majority of hydraulic machinery, even many older machines that may be obsolete. A single pass can reduce particle contamination to three microns, with further slow runs making any level of cleanliness possible. It can also remove almost all water in the oil.

Of course, the bypass filtration system is carrying the bulk of the filtration duty, so it will need its own filters to be regularly renewed. Fortunately, this is a radically different proposition to renewing the machine’s filter. First, there is no downtime required, because machinery can continue operating without bypass filtration, at least in the short term. Second, these filters are often much cheaper and easier to change than those embedded in hydraulic systems.

To give an example, a factory in Britain analysed its oil and found it be NAS 12, which is the highest level of contamination on the NAS scale. Naturally, such dirty oil led to problems such as machine breakdowns, seal damage and valve blockages. On adding a bypass filtration system, it initially had to work rather hard to clean the oil, with new filters being required every few weeks. Once the oil cleanliness stabilised at NAS 6, however, new filters were only needed every 12 weeks. Above all, though, the factory experienced no more breakdowns from contaminated hydraulic fluid.

In short, bypass filtration can be a cost-effective way to reduce machine breakdowns while avoiding the need for excessive oil and filter changes.

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A new video has been published showing a demonstration by ExxonMobil, the oil major that makes lubricants for Mobil UK stockists, from the exhibition floor of MRO Americas 2018, a leading event for the aviation maintenance industry.

In the demonstration, Gary K. Dudley, who is a global grease product technical advisor for ExxonMobil, begins by saying:

“…so last year we had what we called our grease wall. We invited our customers to come in and ask us questions they had about our greases, and so from that wall we identified a couple of key themes.”

Gary then begins the demonstration by showing a jar of fresh Mobilgrease 33. He then explains how he and his team took Mobilgrease 33 and added 10% water to it before placing it in an oven for two days. He then shows the result of this, pointing out that there was no discernible change in appearance. When they tried the same process with another industry approved grease, there was a notable degradation as the product changed from dark green to black, indicating some kind of reaction between the grease and the water.

Gary also demonstrates the results from a 4-ball weld test ran at 500kg using Mobilgrease 33 and two competing aviation greases. While the balls welded together for the other greases and showed heavy signs of wear, the bearings from the Mobilgrease 33 test remained separate, indicating that it copes with much higher loads than the other greases.

The full demonstration can be viewed on YouTube.

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Any good maintenance strategy should consider using used oil analysis (UOA), so operators can make informed decisions about when to make costly interventions such as oil changes and learn about any issues in the machinery, such as excessive wear or water contamination.

To help operators analyse their oils, Mobil launched its Mobil Serv Lubricant Analysis programme in 2016. This relieved Mobil’s customers of the need for in-house analysis equipment by allowing them to send samples to Mobil in pre-labelled bottles. By using a smartphone app to scan both the code on the bottle and the machine, the need for manual labelling is removed, helping to speed up the process.

Since the programme’s introduction, Mobil has analysed a million oil samples from equipment such as gas engines (over 100,000 samples), hydraulic systems (over 100,000 samples), diesel engines (over 243,000 samples) and many more. Not surprisingly, this, combined with the company’s previous experiences with oil analysis, has given it some key insights into interpreting UOA results.

A lubricant’s formula can affect a test’s results

It may be often overlooked, but some lubricants may include elements that help trigger alerts on oil analysis. As an example, it’s possible that a hydraulic oil may contain some zinc-based additives. Clearly they are there for a reason, but they may also make the tests for metal wear, including copper, give inflated results. In such cases, the machinery needs to be considered in this context. Question whether it really is machine wear or lubricant ingredients, and if needed, take a closer look to get to the bottom of it.

One result is not always sufficient

It may be tempting to heed an alert from a single test, but this is not always telling the whole story. Looking at all the test results for a single sample will be more useful in determining how your equipment is performing.

For example, Mobil said that of the samples it processed from gas engines, more than 5% led to an alert for the acid number (AN). Considering this alone, though, could well lead to an incorrect interpretation. If you instead also consider the results for factors like oxidation, wear metals, nitration, base number, and viscosity, you will gain a better overall understanding of how an oil is really performing within a piece of equipment. This in turn enables you to make better maintenance decisions.

Trends are also important

An alert may be a cause for concern, but sometimes they can occur because the limit does not consider the design of a certain piece of equipment. In such cases, it may be worth looking at the trend over time rather than the individual alerts. For example, if the copper wear is increasing over subsequent tests, it’s more likely to indicate an issue.

Water needs the right test

There are two tests for water contamination: The Hot Plate test, which only indicates the presence of water, and the Karl-Fischer test, which quantifies the amount of water.

Should the Hot Plate test indicate water, a second Karl-Fischer test may be warranted to establish if the lubricant is actually suffering because of it.

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German energy company Uniper has launched a new pilot scheme to make use of wind power by converting it into methane gas.

Wind power across Europe is growing rapidly, and the industry continues to make advancements in production, efficiency, and lubrication, such as from the advanced wind-power lubricants available through

Mobil UK distributors. Windy days, however, can lead to excess power generation, and there’s great interest in finding practical ways to make use of this.

In line with this, Uniper has set up a pilot scheme to convert wind energy into methane gas, the primary component of natural gas. The company is already using wind power at its Falkenhagen plant to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. This green hydrogen is a viable transport fuel, and it can even be combined with natural gas in modest proportions and fed into gas grids. Producing methane instead, however, will result in a better quality fuel with a more diverse range of applications.

As part of the two-year pilot, Uniper will take carbon dioxide from a bio-ethanol plant and combine it with hydrogen, which it already produces onsite, to create something that resembles natural gas. The amounts produced initially will be relatively small. Should the company’s engineers demonstrate the viability of the technology, though, it could push renewable energy a step further by adding the ability to convert excess wind energy into a fuel that can easily be used in a variety of sectors, such as manufacturing and electricity generation.

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Despite your best efforts, and your choice of high quality lubricants from Mobil UK stockists, it’s not unheard of for components to fail, usually for one of three reasons:

• Condition-based failure
• Random failure
• Early failure

A condition-based failure is most often caused by some sort of contamination. In addition to wear debris, dirt, liquid and gases can contaminate a lubricant from the outside. Depending on the nature of the contamination, it can accelerate component wear, compromise oil viscosity or cause metal oxidisation. While good lubricants like those from Mobil contain additives to mitigate these effects, all of these things can ultimately contribute to equipment failure.

Random failures, meanwhile, can manifest at any time. They are also referred to as event-dependent failures, which may be more accurate because they are likely to result from misuse, such as by overloading a particular part or running the machinery at an excessive speed. At such high loads, particulate can touch surfaces and surfaces can come into contact with each other, both of which lead to more wear occurring.

An event failure, finally, is often the result of inadequate lubrication practices, which in turn leads to premature wear and ultimately failure. For example, prior to start up, sliding surfaces may not be lubricated, so they remain in contact until a film forms between them. This, of course, leads to increased wear, and equipment frequently fails during this sensitive period. This can often be resolved by using a hydrostatic lubricant like Mobil DTE 25 to create a protective film prior to movement.

The good news here is that wear analysis can give some clues as to what’s happening within a machine. While it’s perhaps not appropriate to analyse every piece of equipment for wear, you can prioritise your most important assets and regularly analyse their lubrication. In addition, when starting an oil analysis programme, an initial thorough analysis of all equipment can help highlight the equipment that’s most at risk from excessive wear. Unusual behaviour like vibration, overly high pressure, and overheating can also be indications that a wear analysis may be warranted.

You can also look for warning signs in your regular oil analysis. If there is a rise in wear metals—such as copper, aluminium and iron—it may well indicate that there is an accelerated rate of wear going on. Another useful indication is the particle quantifier index (PQI), which quantifies the distortion to a magnetic field as it is applied to the sample bottle. This is used to measure ferrous particulate, and it is a useful supplement to the wear metal numbers. It is by no means a perfect indication, because it does not measure non-ferrous particulate, for example, but if the PQI has risen dramatically while the iron level remains stable or even drops, it probably means larger wear particles are being created. This is also a good reason to conduct wear analysis.
A wear analysis by a trained technician can then identify the nature of the wear particles, which in turn can help point at the source of the wear and suggest a suitable intervention.

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