QUANTITATIVE LUBRICATING OIL DEBRIS MONITORING AND ANALYSIS

ASOMA INSTRUMENTS, INC. IS PROPOSING TO DEVELOP A LOW COST, PORTABLE, ENERGY DISPERSIVE, RADIOISOTOPE ACTIVATED X-RAY FLUORESCENCE ANALYZER,WHICH CAN BE USED AT OR NEAR THE SAMPLING POINT FOR LUBRICATING OILS. IF SUCCESSFULLY DEVELOPED, THIS INSTRUMENT COULD BE OPERATED BY NON-TECHNICAL PERSONNEL, TO PROVIDE ANALYSES WITHIN ONE TO FIVE MINUTES FOR ACCUMULATIONS IN LUBRICATING OILS OF WEAR METAL DEBRIS. AS A MANUFACTURER OF SIMILAR INSTRUMENTS ASOMA WILL MODIFY AND OPTIMIZE EXISTING TEST BED HARDWARE AND DEVELOP CALIBRATIONS USING KNOWN STANDARD SAMPLES TO FULLY DEMONSTRATE THE RELIABILITY AND PRECISION OF THIS RAPID, NON-DESTRUCTIVE METHOD OF ANALYSIS FOR DEBRIS IN LUBE OIL SAMPLES. IN PREPARATION FOR A POSSIBLE PHASE II INVESTIGATION, A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION WILL BE MADE TO DETERMINE THE COMPARABLE PRECISION OF ANALYSES MADE ON CONTINUOUSLY FLOWING CIRCULATED STREAMS OF CONTAMINATED LUBE OILS.