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OilView News # 55, WDA is the Referee by Ray Garvey

Do you know who the referee is for the game of "industrial oil analysis?" What if the oilanalysis results show that there MAY be a problem, but you are not sure? What if you aresure there is a problem, but don't know what the problem is or what the cause may be? Inthese cases you want to call in the referee to help you make the best possible call on your

oil analysis. The referee's name is Wear Debris Analysis (WDA).

WDA is the silver bullet in your arsenal. Use it to see firsthand what kind of solid particlesare being carried around by your oil. Just like the medical doctor uses blood analysis toidentify physical problems with organs and bodily systems, you can use WDA to identify thenature of mechanical problems and system contamination.

Use the automatic measurements of chemistry, contamination, and wear to select thesamples worthy of personal attention. You can be confident that the ferrous index,contaminant index, particle count, and particle size distribution measurements willdistinguish all of the potentially bad samples from the routine. Since each of thesemeasurements respond differently to water, iron, non-ferrous metals, dust, and other solids,you can get a pretty good idea what to expect that you will see using WDA. The more

samples you test and the more you learn about your applications, the better you will be atforecasting what the conclusions of WDA will be.

You might even think of it as a game-- you come up with an idea of what the outcome ofWDA will be, and then see if you are right when you inspect the debris. You can't loose. Ifyou're right, pat yourself on the back and go take the corrective measures you had in mindanyway. If you're wrong and WDA showed you something new, then good for you! Yousuccessfully used WDA to improve your success ratio.

So how do you do WDA? You have lots of choices.

I prefer to use the 5200. After doing tests 1, 2, and 3, you simply make a decision as towhether you want to make 0 to 4 filter patches for WDA. You don't make any patches at all

if there isn't anything of interest in the ferrous index, contaminant index, particle count, orsize distribution information. If you notice a high value in one or more of thesemeasurements, or if you noticed anything visually in the sample bottle, you can choose tomake a single patch (everything on it) or a double patch (large particles on the top patchwith smaller ones on a lower patch). You can also choose to extract all the ferrous debrisso that all the non-ferrous debris can be accumulated first and ferrous debris can becollected in a second patch or double patch arrangement.

http://www.compsys.com/DRKNOW/PRODINFO.NSF/63f2d82b29576642852564520049de98/aac30b7648e94fa68525698f006e3ea3!OpenDocument

The 5100 minilab user can employ the 51WD Wear Debris Patch maker in much the sameway.

http://www.compsys.com/DRKNOW/PRODINFO.NSF/63f2d82b29576642852564520049de98/9044f44ecd65b7f0852567b40048e072?OpenDocument

Analytical Ferrography and Rotary Particle Deposition are two alternative methods. Both ofthese methods use a glass slide instead of filter patch to accumulate ferrous and non-ferroussediments for microscopic inspection.

If you don't have one of these instruments, you can still do WDA using an inverted bottlewith a magnet under the lid. The important thing is to collect the debris on a surface and tohave it spread out so that you can see individual particles. There are advantages anddisadvantages to each method which I will not take time to go into at this point.

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Once you have deposited solids from the oil on patch(es) or slide(s) you then use amicroscope to carefully inspect and determine their nature and origin. The 51CV ImageCapture kit is used with the OilView WDA software module (Part Number 475103) tophotograph and classify the concentration, size, shape, texture, composition, classification,and severity. A helpful tool is the quick reference atlas. By selecting an atlas image with

similar features to a sample image, you can copy the atlas image features over to thesample image. Then simply edit the pasted results to match the analysis to your sampleimage.

http://www.compsys.com/DRKNOW/PRODINFO.NSF/63f2d82b29576642852564520049de98/42577c0842764631852566b3005abd5c?OpenDocument

The WDA severity is appended to the overall Wear Condition for the sample. Your WDAseverity is combined with all the other oil analysis parameters reflected in the variousreporting options in the OilView software. You may want to include a picture of theequipment or component when writing the final report. This helps show where the specificproblem and sampling point are located.

Abrasion, adhesion, fatigue, and corrosion are four of the most frequently observedabnormal wear debris for industrial equipment. Abrasion is commonly caused by dirt in the

oil. Adhesion is the result of lubricant starvation. Fatigue is often associated with vibrationtype problems such as misalignment, imbalance, or improper fit. Corrosion results whenwater or other corrosive fluids chemically attack metal surfaces. WDA is the referee thatcan effectively distinguish these particles from one another and establish/validate problemseverity.

Best regards,

Ray Garveymailto:garveyr@compsys.com

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