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Electro Static Filtration

C crbMember
Hello to All;
We have just recently installed an Electro Static Filter on a High Pressure Servo System to control and remove varnish and have since been having the following problems.
1.Fourteen days after the installation a high pressure hydraulic pump failed catastrophically. My opinion is a shoe of one of the pistons failed and lead to the failure. Others believe the failure to be a result of free varnish as a result of the filter.
2.Twenty five days after installation we had two valves failed. Varnish was removed from the spool of one and we were able to re-use. The other was a servo valve and was replaced. The mesh screen was removed and examined. The screen was clogged with varnish.
3.Twenty seven days after installation we had another servo valve fail. Inspection of the mesh screen revealed only a few flakes of varnish. I would have thought this screen should have been as clogged as the other.
The filter OEM says their system removes the varnish in layers and does not have the potential to induce these failures. Has anyone experienced any issues similar to the ones we have after installation of an electro static filter?
The powers-that-be have deduced these problems are a result of the Electro Static Filter. Is this an accurate accusation?
Your assistance with this matter is greatly appreciated.
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B bobkMember
Why did you install electrostatic filtration in the first place? Having previous varnish problems?
What fluid are you using? Group I - III basestock?
Is it new or used?
If new, is it different from the previous fluid? Compatibility issues or improved detergency releasing varnish built-up over the years could overwhelm any filtration system.
If used how much remaining useful life does it have? Any measurement of varnish potential done?If antioxidant capacity is depleted, varnish production too high for any filtration system especially if basestock with lower solvency being used.
Before you can conclude anything about effects of electrostatic filtration, you need to consider your fluid condition.
O oilkleenMember
Are you sure your using a true electrostatic filter or some filter that causes agglomeration of particles. If it was an agglomeration technology we have seen some of the issues you mentioned. We have done extensive field trials with agglomeration technology and we call it "pushing particles" internally. This is because all the sub micron particles grow every where in your system until something takes them out, i.e.,filters, valves, tight tollerance components.

Another problem we are seeing in the market is customers wait until thier oil is shot before purchasing an electrostatic oil cleaner. This means that there anti-oxidant additves are severely depeleted and the oil can actually cause more varnish.

an ideal perfect world situation is to change your oil to new oil and then install an electrostatic filter to protect and maintain your oil for extended life. Electrostatic filters can do amazing things with oil but they cannot fix a bad chemistry problem.

Paul Jarvis
C ccuserMember
Oilkleen - where have you seen agglomeration cause problems? We have an ISOPur MR unit and it has performed well. There is no evidence of a performance problem due to agglomeration of particles in our system. "Pushing particles" is a bad analogy.

CRB - have you analyzed the varnish composition? This may help you determine whether or not it is related to the electostatic equipment. It is more likely that you installed equipment on oil that already had bad varnish and that these incidents are coincidental. (Refer to Bob K's questions.)
H harvMember
Hello all
I continue to hear the concern as to where does the varnish actually go when using aglomeration or just electrostatics and no one seems to have any data showing the varnish they removed. If it is gone, where did it go? Using the CC Jensen filters we know and have clean oil results and data to show the varnish is no longer in the oil and has actually been adsorbed in the elements in large quantities. Check out the results for yourself at CC Jensen. Not only will you get the best varnish control with CJC but also extremely fine particulate and water removal. Water does not affect the CJC filter systems, unlike the electrostatic systems that will not work at all with even minimal amounts of water present.

Do you want to quess where the contamination went or do you want to know? It's your money!
R raygomesMember
We have very strong evidence that agglomerated particles are collected in the collection filter of our Balanced Charge Agglomeration systems. We recently put a BCA system on an injection molding machine hydraulic system which had a micro-filtration bypass filter. The BCA system cleaned the submicron particles very effectively from the oil.

Later filter analysis indicated the BCA system filters were the actual agglomerate removal filters. The bypass filter had little to nothing in agglomerated particles. The data just came in, but I expect we will have a paper on this case study soon. Call or email for more information.
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