Demulsibility is the ability of oil to separate from water. Oil and water naturally separate because like molecules attract each other. Oil sticks with oil, water sticks with water. Oil is "hydrophobic", or "afraid of water," which is a benefit when it comes to fluids like turbine oil.
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.
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
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!”
