A few weeks ago a customer asked me to take a look at a quote he had received from a local filter distributor on a set of filter carts. As I scanned the fax for information, it became obvious that the quote was just that … a series of numbers and letters and a price for the equipment that was represented by those numbers and letters. There was absolutely no information on the page about the filter carts’ performance or features other than the option of purchasing one or two filters.

It was apparent that one of two things happened. Read the full story

A particle counter is a useful tool for maintenance and reliability professionals. It can provide both proactive and predictive benefits including information on:

• oil cleanliness level
• filtration performance
• abnormal wear conditions
• effectiveness of corrective maintenance
• problem isolation
• identifying the need for ferrographic analysis
• identifying use of dirty top-up containers or dirty new oil

Read more about using particle counters

The benefit of thinner fibers in a filter is that there are more pores per square inch (higher pore density) which allows higher dirt-holding capacity and lower pressure drop. This, in turn, can extend the filter's life and may result in a net reduction in filtration costs (net average cost to remove a gram of dirt). Thinner media fibers, made of glass for instance, can also produce more uniform pore size distribution, improving the filter's overall quality to capture and retain particles.

Air entrainment is a small amount of air in the form of extremely small bubbles dispersed throughout the bulk of the oil. Air entrainment is treated differently than foam, and is most often a completely separate problem.