Our in house oil program is looking into purchasing an instrument to measure ( PPM ) and identify elements in used oil samples. We have been doing basic testing including particle counting and patch testing in house for 5 years. The people using the instruments come from a mechanical background and are not trained Chem techs. So thats a bit about our background. My question is what should we buy? We are currently looking at RDE technology ( what our outside lab uses now ) and EDXRF which seems to be simpler to use and detects a wider range of wear particles but for some reason is not widely used. Anyone have any experience with either of these instruments that they could share.
Original Post