Lube Oil Analysis Services

Effective lube oil analysis services can identify wear, contamination, and changes that can adversely affect machine health and reliability. Optimal equipment performance starts with consistent machinery fluid testing and analysis.

Lubricants are specially composed by mixing a number of chemicals with the base oil to minimize wear in machines, prevent contamination or improve operating conditions under difficult environmental conditions. The blended chemicals, called additives, contain organometallic and inorganic compounds as their active ingredients. So, for quality control, one can quantify the amount of additives present in the lubricant by analyzing the concentrations of inorganic compounds.

The four most common types of lube oils are automotive engine oils, marine engine oils, industrial oils, and transmission oils. Each type of lube oil has a specific composition of additive elements that must be ascertained to assure proper lube oil quality. Even though the additive package for each type of lube oil contains essentially the same elements quality control, determining concentrations, can be somewhat challenging as samples are often subject to dilution prior to analysis.