IF a contaminated lubricant isn’t dealt with promptly, it can affect the entire machinery system that it forms a part of. This can result in increased costs from downtime and equipment repairs, or worse, having to replace equipment entirely. Dealing with a contaminated lubricant requires the whole system to be flushed to prevent further damage.

According to Lubrication specialists, Lubrication Engineers (LE) South Africa, for effective filtration, the right tools are essential. The company recommends a ‘kidney-loop’ filtration cart to help drain contaminated lubricants from systems.

Gavin Ford, national marketing manager at LE, says the filtration cart is often the first step when LE helps a client solve issues. “We’ll get complaints of machinery issues like loud operating volumes, high temperatures, or excessive vibrations. From experience, we know that most of these issues are linked to contaminated lubricants. About 80% of the time, the oil needs to be cleaned, rather than replaced, so we run the kidney-loop system to do this.”

The system mechanically separates out any particles or water from the system, which helps to prevent further damage to the machinery.

Once the system has been decontaminated, it’s important to diagnose the issue. Contaminants can be introduced due to a newly installed part, such as a pump or motor, not having a breather installed with it, or water entering the system during cleaning procedures. “Once we’ve filtered the lubricant, diagnosed the problem and fixed it, we run the machinery and then do another analysis to check that everything has been sorted out,” says Ford.

In addition to decontamination, filtration carts can be used in a variety of applications, such as dispensing or pre-filtering new oil.