Wear Particle Analysis
Normal
spectrometric oil analysis (SOA) provides useful data about the wear rates and what
metal elements (alloys) are involved. Wear particle morphology can often
add to this information. The wear particle shape, aspect ratio, thickness,
edge detail, surface texture and fracture details provide an indication of the
type of wear mode occurring. The following wear processes produce particles with
a specific morphology that can be identified and classified.
Surface Fatigue.
Rubbing Wear.
Scuffing.
Spalling.
Sliding and Cutting wear.
Fretting.
Analytical Ferrography is a technique for extracting wear particles from the oil and depositing them onto a thin glass microscope slide (Ferrogram) where they can be examined under a microscope. A Ferrogram can have particles varying from 0.1µm to up to several hundreds of microns.
DR Ferrography is a technique where the wear particles can be extracted from an oil sample and the wear particle size distribution estimated. From the size distribution the severity of wear index can be calculated. DR Ferrography is often useful for monitoring gearboxes.
The Thumbnail gallery shown below illustrates some of the more interesting items associated with our wear debris analysis work.
Please click "Back Arrow" to return after viewing photographs to select another.
