including diesel engines, petrol/gasoline engines, crosshead engines, methane gas engines, cylinder oils, stern tubes, hydraulic oils, air compressors, fridge compressors, gearbox/transmissions, axles, differential, final drives, tandem drives, swing machinery, bearings, paper machine fluids, gas turbines, steam turbines, wind turbines, circulating system fluids, rolling oils, cutting fluids, fire resistant fluids, sealing oils and food grade lubes to name but a few. Using lube oil analysis we can detect and prevent problems such as

• Contaminated Oil and oil cleanliness issues - we can test your lubricant cleanliness both by its elemental composition for e.g. the trace markers of silicon and aluminium found in dirt and also by particle counting to ISO4406, SAE4059, NAS and gravimetric insolubles standards. By counting the number of particles at a range of particle sizes down to a few microns we can help you improve your filtration and get considerable extensions to component life compared to if no corrective action was taken.
• Wrong lubricant use and incorrect lubricant selection
• Missing or poor maintenance practices - it's more common than you think, but many machine owners are inadvertently putting the wrong oil in their machinery.  Oil analysis helps identify when oil life has been extended beyond its useful life with tests such as Acid Number and Base Number. Testing lubricating oils allows maintenance to be not only condition based to save you time and money, but prevents over and under maintenance of machinery.
• Air Filtration, air leaks, sealing and breather issues - all machinery eventually comes into contact with the outside world whether it is through breathing of the tank, or through any other of the potential contamination ingress points. Even fully sealed systems are not 100% effective at keeping out contamination. By measuring the condition of the lubricant you are in turn able to identify seal failures and problems with breathers / air filters to help determine when these need replacing. Equally, by monitoring the appearance of the oil for suspended carbon particles it is possible to identify air leaks in fuel and hydraulic systems.
• Lube filtration issues and comparison- we can help identify causes of blocked filters, causes of filter bypasses tripping and the effectiveness of any new filter used.
• Lube oil comparison trials - many lubricant suppliers will be able to supply a lubricant that is fine for your machinery and will often have multiple approvals to back it up. However, what if you want better than fine or if you want to asses the cost effectiveness of using one suppliers oil over another, lube analysis allows you to run side by side trials. Moreover, our LubeWear acid digestion analysis allows very early detection of abnormal wear that traditional analysis misses meaning that the real acid test (pardon the pun) as to how your lubricant performs is by detecting all this wear and comparing the two oils.
• Coolant leaks and gasket failures - tests for coolant additives, water and glycol to detect early stages of coolant leaks.
• Fuel leaks and injector failures - detect fuel dilution, soot buildup, help avoid engine fires, worn rings, faulty injectors.
• Wear to pumps, pistons, bearings, shafts, rods, rings, pins, cylinders, bushes, washers, turbo chargers and all metallic components. We can also detect wear to plastic and rubber components. Our LubeWear Technology also means we can detect a failure considerably earlier than traditional lube analysis and help customers correct problems at the earliest stages to save them time and money.
• Oil overuse, overheating and varnish - an overused or overheated oil not only is poor at protecting machinery it can actually start doing more harm than good with acidic properties causing corrosion and insulating varnish that accelerates overheating issues.

This means you see less catastrophic failures like these...

... And catch them earlier so they can be repaired early which can cost you up to 60% less than repairing after a failure. What's more the true benefits comes in that you have less machinery downtime which can reduce downtime costs by up to 90%.

1. It allows you to identify faults and repair them before a failure – This can save you 60% in repair costs alone compared to repairs after a failure.
2. Reduce power/fuel consumption and improving your carbon footprint – if your machine is in peak condition then great, but the likelihood is that will not always be the case. With fuel and energy being two large inescapable costs for your business finding ways to reduce inefficiency such as fuel leaks on your vehicles can reduce your energy costs and improve your carbon footprint.
3. Reduces unplanned downtime - this is the most widely known benefit and where huge returns on investment up to 10 times higher than the cost of impmenting the programme. If your machinery not working is a problem then you need oil analysis.
4. Improves your reputation with clients – this may seem strange at first but if your machinery working is critical to your business operations when it fails it can mean you are unable to deliver to your clients, which in turn can damage your clients' confidence in the robustness of your service. Oil analysis helps head off potential PR disasters before they happen. Equally if you are involved in supplying machinery lubricants, filtration, cleaning or repair services what better way to prove your value to your clients than with a before and after sample.
5. Reduces over maintenance and reduces lubricant costs – this ensures components / lube replacements happen only when needed. In fact, 85% of all oil changes are done at the wrong time when not using oil analysis, so you could be pouring money away with each unnecessary oil change.
6. Reduces wastage or build-up of intermediate items in manufacturing – if the last stage of your production process fails then you risk build-up of intermediate or perishable stock that cannot be converted to your end product. In food production facilities for instance this can mean loss of entire stock inventories whilst waiting for a repair.
7. Improves safety – you can't put a cost on safety, but if something saves you money and can improve safety all the better. Oil analysis helps spot machinery faults and fire risks so they can be corrected before they lead to loss of life. In fact many governing and industry bodies recommend oil sampling for safety in:

• Offshore and Mining to reduce fire risk with flammable products nearby and test lubricant fire resistance.

• Construction to reduce risk of uncontrolled hydraulic machinery movements.

• Rail and Road to reduce risks to passengers of fires, crashes and de-railment.

• Marine to ensure ships can be controlled safely at sea to avoid capsizing or running aground when attempting to enter ports.

• Metal working to ensure fluid does not become contaminated leading to microbial growth and potential operator skin and breathing problems.

• Metal casting and quenching - confirms when using quenching or cooling oils there is not an explosion risk.

• Safety equipment - Lifeboats and backup generators at a hospital are key pieces of equipment and end users usually make testing to confirm in serviceable condition mandatory.

We can perform full turbine health assessments in our lab including tests such as:

• RPVOT, RULER and varnish potential  - check the life remaining in the lubricant and its propensity to form varnish
• Foam and Air release - see how well your lubricant handles air entrainment
• Rust resistance - see how well your lubricant corrosion resistance additives are working.

Our thermal oil suites are designed with safety in mind to help you in identifying potential fire risks and thermal oil degradation. That is why our safety thermal analysis testing includes tests such as:

• Open (Cleveland Open Cup - COC) and Closed  (Pensky-Martin Closed Cup - PMCC) flash point as well as fire point analysis to check the flammability properties of the fluid and light end buildups in the fluid.
• Carbon residue testing to identify degradation of the fluid and propensity to form coke products.
• Noack Volatility - to identify the likelihood of the product to lose lighter ends at higher temperatures.
• Auto-ignition temperature - identification the temperature at which the product will spontaneously combust. Another useful parameter in fire safety testing.

We test all grease soap types and NLGI grades of grease. Our LubeWear technology excels in grease soap and wear metal detection. We can detect problems such as:

• • Contaminated grease with e.g. water and dirt.
  • Overused grease by monitoring properties such as oxidation to determine when to change.
  • Mixing of soap types.
  • Bearing misalignments and imbalances - identify wear to bearing cages and when sampling multiple bearing points e.g. north, south, east and west or drive end and non drive ends we can help determine imbalance issues.

We also do much of grease new product testing, including:

• Worked cone pentration (various cone sizes depending on the quantity required) to confirm the NLGI grade the product conforms to.
• Drop point testing to confirm the maximum temperature the grease can be subjected to before losing liquid.
• Conical Sieve long-term storage temperature, to determine how likely the product is to bleed oil under long term storage conditions.
• Four Ball (4-ball) grease loading test to see the load protection the grease provides.

Transformer and Electrical Fluids

We perform full electrical oil testing including testing:

• Fluid condition - Acidity, Moisture, Dielectric breakdown
• Transformer condition - Dissolved gas analysis with full diagnosis monitoring using all the most popular methods such as Duval and Rogers including some of our own techniques too.
• Electrical contact condition - identification of trace wear particles and corrosion elements with our exclusive LubeWear analysis.
• Paper condition assessment - Furans testing
• And much more such as additive content, resistivity, tan delata, interfacial tension to name a few.

We can test new lubricants to confirm they meet new oil specifications including testing of sulphated ash, elemental additives such as Sulphur, Phosphurus, Calcium, Molybdenum, Magnesium and Zinc (both by XRF and ICP) and check for contaminants such as Chlorine.

We can test fuels to road diesel DERV (EN590), red diesel (BS2869), marine diesel (ISO8217) and identify common problems including fuel bugs, Dirty fuel tanks and Poor quality fuel.

We can organise safe collection of your sample with specialist hazardous and flammable substances couriers and perform testing of your fuel for evidence of diesel, water, particulates and other common contaminants as well as determination of the ethanol content and other physical properties of the fuel. Our solution for these fuels is a complete one stop solution in that all you have to do is get your sample into a fuel safe container that we can also provide if you don't have them and we will organise collection and testing of your sample.

We can perform complete ISO 22241 specification testing for New product testing for manufacturers as well as common contamination testing found in vehicles such as tap water, screen wash, coolant, fuel and a full suite of known catalyst poisons.

We regularly test engine coolants for signs of incorrect concentration, topups with poor quality water, freeze protection and vapour phase corrosion inhibition.

For battery and other electric vehicle (EV) fluids we test the electrical resistivity properties and confirm the product is free from water in both condition monitoring and new production of fluids.

We can detect and solve problems with your cutting oils to help you avoid problems such as:

• Poor surface finishes

• Corrosion

• Foam

• Mix instability

• Poor tool / wheel life

• Rancidity / Microbial problems

• Residues

Analysis includes tests such as concentration, pH, water hardness, biocide concentrations and microbial contamination

We can perform compatibility testing including swell testing, hardness, stretch and compression properties etc.

Our filter tests service can identify the cause of blockages, early bypass and causes of failure including ferrography testing.

Unknown deposits, powders, fluids found on, in or around machinery can be identified to aid clients in finding their source.

We test full components to aid customers identifying the source of failure or faults including bearings, water pumps, opened injectors etc.

• Injector analysis - identification of blockage causes and degree of blockage if any. Full microscopic and LubeWear 3D modelling of injector tip condition included as standard.
• Pumps and components - identification of component surface damage both chemically and microscopically including our exclusive LubeWear 3D scanning technology to give never seen before visuals of component damage to get to the root cause.

• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - Our analysis can help you detect banned and carcinogenic substances such as PCBs in your transformer electrical oils. Testing helps confirm your equipment is compliant with UK regulations and avoid hefty fines and contaminating other products.
• Heavy metal and contamination metal elements -such as Arsenic, Cadmiun, Chrome, Mercury, Lead, Selenium, Nickel, Vanadium prior to disposal / rejuvenation so you can help ensure the fluid is handled in an appropriate way.

Customers when changing their oil often don't realise the magnetic drain plugs collect a lot of material that never reaches filters or fluid samples. By using our mag plug upload service customers can send regular photographs for trending inspection and any that highlight problems the material can be scraped off into a sample container and sent to the lab for full wear debris analysis.

We offer classroom and online training (free and paid options) on all things fluid analysis and condition monitoring.

Independent advisers to help manufacturers of filtration equipment and lubricants in achieving technical goals as well as investigators to aid customers identify a failure mechanism on a particular site.