Oil Condition Sensor

[crashz]

Most large equipment manufactures and heavy truck manufactures have an extensive PM program with oil analysis included because the average sump on a road truck is quite a bit larger than a car, or compmact tractor for that matter. Service costs downtime and more money/materials to do so.

So an oil quality sensor would be beneficial to the larger equipment manufactures, but less so to the average homeowner.

I'm just thinking out load here, but an industry that would greatly benefit from an onboard lube quality sensor would be the wind power industry. Some of the generators/gearboxes for the windmills can have 100's of gallons of lube oil in them, and all service is a major undertaking due to the height and limited room in the nacell. Real time oil monitoring would greatly help the operators on the ground.

 

[Milton Burro]

Thanks for all of the feedback guys. I'm actually working on a sensor that should be able to determine the oil quality based on the electrical properties of the oil and thus its overall viscosity and a few other factors.

Interesting. What other factors? Can you measure the molecule strings?

 

[KJaeger]

Umm as far as what other factors it may be able to test include water content, density, composition, flow rate and acid content due to being based primarily on the dielectric properties so no it wouldn't be able to monitor the individual molecules in particular.

 

[Mace Canute]

I use Texas Refinery Corporation oil and the used oil analysis is included in the purchase price of the oil but the last I heard it was $35 to get the lab to do the same analysis. It's been awhile since my last UOA, can't find it without a lot of digging, but they do give numbers on a large number of different things. A decent sensor would have to match that. Any sensor would cost X amount to implement, and would be unlikely to give as detailed or accurate a "report" as the lab report and the more detailed and accurate the sensor is, the more costly it would be. The question is, would the upfront cost of a sensor (that can fail and have to be replaced) be cost effective up against lab costs that are spread out over time? Nothing says you have to have a UOA every oil change either. Personally, I would always take a UOA over a sensor reading any day.

 

[Redneck in training]

Here is how the users of large rotating machinery do it:
They take a sample of oil every month and analyze it in a lab. At some point the lab tels them the oil is nearing end of it useful life and has to be changed within few months.
The turbine I am currently working on has two oil tanks 110 barrels each. One for synthetic oil for the gas turbine, the second with mineral oil is for the compressor.
The oil will typically last about two years (about 9000 hours) of continuous running.
The filters are regularly changed while running. The turbine has a chip detector installed. The compressor doesn't.

 

[WilliamTO-35]

About a year ago I read about a long term test of some vehicle, a new automobile I believe, that attempted to track the condition of the engine, and the life of the oil, using laboratory analyses. Oil samples were taken at regular intervals and analyzed. Sadly, the information gathered was often erratic, and often made no sense relative to the break-in of the new engine. As I recall, more than one laboratory was used, and even the two labs often disagreed. The conclusion was that, although taking regular oil samples might give you a warm confident feeling, for light duty vehicles you're better off just using the change intervals recommended by the manufacturer.

 

[dmccarty]

I do UOA on my truck and tractor. The report on the oil lists about 28 different items. Some are more important than others but at a minimum for a chip to be useful it would have report the amount of fuel, water, and anti freeze in the oil as well as the TBN.

Later,
Dan

 

[davygp38]

To answer the question, yes I think an on board oil sensor like the one you describe would be a great addition to my PM schedule. Cost would be mitigated by wide spread acceptance of the system, and as posted earlier fleets will start using it first. I work in the rail industry, and on board diagnostics, linked with GPS are the norm. We do not however have the ability to do"en-route real time" oil diagnostics. Furthermore due to time constraints periodic oil analysis is sometime overlooked. I would also point out to the Tractor owner that this system could save us a lot of money, by postponing unnecessary fluid changes, Additionally, if you knew you were having a problem with metal detected in the hydraulic oil, you could get the machine to a mechanic before catastrophic failure, and avoid equipment recovery fees. Keep up with your research, and let us know how it is going.