I need to find a lab that can tell me what a contaminate is composed of. We have several filters/ patches that have contaminates on them that we can not indentify. Our regular lab will give us reports that say it appears to be this or that. We have been task with finding out what the comtaminates are, not what they might be. This is more of a science project, is there a lab that can identify if the contaminate is additive drop out, varnish by products, sludge, ect..?

We have the equipment on site to make patches and slides and can identify the majority of, for lack of a better term, crap on a patch or slide.

The contaminates in some of our equipment can be smeared with your fingers. We are not worried about there being wear particles in it, we are more concerned that it will plug oil passages or orifices.

Any contact information you could supply me with would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Pete

Go to Industrial Lubrication topics on this board and read varnish in turbine oil threads. Believe you can find the help you need there.

Find a lab that will do X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry

Frank

Herguth labs is in your neck of the woods and they are a top notch outfit. They have all the nuke certs and are allways very helpful.
rgf

We spend a lot of our idle time looking at patches of crap as well, can you get a high resolution scan and send it to me? I'll give you my two cents worth for free...

Lubecheck@focuslab.co.th