I would like to know opinion about if the ICP along with ferrography and other physical tests is enough to perform oil analysis, or is it necessary RDE.
I cannot even count any more how many times I’ve read that nonsense about the limitation of ICP due to the size of wear particles. It seems to me that not many people (including some experts) have ever heard of acid reflux digestion. This is a standard sample prep method in inorganic chemistry. A sample of oil, or wastewater, or soil, or pulp, or cloth or any other material to be tested, is refluxed (on a hot plate or microwaved) with conc. nitric acid for minimum of two hours before measurement. All wear metals got dissolved regardless of their size and analyzed (whether they are 10 or 1000 microns). Every legitimate commercial lab is capable of doing it. For the results of in-service oil to be used for tracking-and-trending, you need to run a baseline with new oil, using the same method. Just like you have to do with any other parameter tests. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, this method has never been offered to people seeking oil analysis, and their benefits explained.
Posts: 236 | Location: Portland, US | Registered: Thu November 18 2004
IMHO you only NEED to run either an ICP OR RDE. However for trending purposes you have to stick to one or the other. As with any of these tests they give you some insight as to what is taking place in the compartment. The more tests you have then the clearer the picture or understanding that you get. The debate about ICP vs RDE is probably going to be around for longer that most of us. It's been around for quite a while already. Perhaps there is something about the specific types of equipment that you want to test that might make one or the other more suitable, care to share that with us?
