Barium (appx. 41ppm) showed up in in our lab results. The problem is: Barium is not in the oils additive package. What are the possible scources of Barium?

We sent our retain to the lab for retest, to eliminate the lab as a possible contanimation source. Retest showed appx. the same level of Barium.

The equipment is a vertical 4160 kv motor. The oil is AW 150. Never had Barium in any of the equipment using AW 150.

Pete, are you sure that a different oil has not been added or a recent supplier change? Barium is typically a dispersant/detergent additive in many lubricants. I would try to see if there was a positive result for barium in a sample of the new oil that is being used to top up the system, I might then want to consider that the wrong type of oil was inadvertantly added at some point. That would be a good place to start. also how large is the lubrication system on this unit?

The oil is the same for close to 20 components. Several of the components have had oil changes/ top offs during this same period, with no indications of Barium. The oil capacity on this motor is appx. 20 gal. Top off in usually 1 to 2 gal.

Thanks for the input, I will double check with our warehouse to verify we have not started with a new batch or vendor.

Pete,
Barium is a metallic base for additives (dispersant/detergent additives as Doug stated) that are often added to AW oils. You should not loose any sleep over the fact that Ba has been detected in your oil. I also believe that you had it in your oil all along. Previous lab reports may show “zero” Ba, but that might have not been correct. The reason for my statement is the (wrong) practice of many labs to report “zero” for any finding that is below detection limit of their instrument or method they are using. For example, if the measured concentration was 28 ppm, and the detection limit was 30 ppm, the lab reports “zero” instead of >30 ppm. I have seen too many times reported water concentration as “zero”, which we all know is not realistic and most likely not true. Result reported, for example, as >0.5% would be much more accurate and helpful to the customers than reporting it as “zero”. Look at your reports and see if the lab reported concentration for all other elements as “less than” what ever the detection limit is, or they reported “zero”.

However, you should not loose any sleep over the fact that Ba has been detected in your oil. Ba is not present in an elemental form, and as such cause wear or any other problem.