Silicon and sodium in oil

Silicon is usually seen in used oil as dust but it is possibly from a silicon assembly compound too in new or recently worked on components. Sodium could be from water entry. The two together could also be from a slight grease contamination. I would be more concerned by the high iron reading than the silicon. Silicon at this level is not likely to be dust entry bad enough to cause severe wear. Do you have a PQ done on the oil? It would be beneficial to filter the oil through a 5 micron filter patch and view under a microscope to determine if there are any contaminants present. Is this a first off sample or is there a trend of lower iron readings?

Silicon can also come from seal degradation. If so, particles would be apparent by microscopy as recommended above.

Hi Nandan

The 145 Fe is elevated, the ISO particle count for screw compressors should be an ISO 16/13-17/14,
If you are not having Particle count or PQ performed on the compressors oil samples you could have damage,
The patch test suggested by Michelle will imediately tell you if you should be cleaner, 145 ppm Fe is elevated, none of the compressors we monitor would run above 20-30 ppm,

I think you should check further as to why there is 145 ppm of Fe sized < 8 µm in the compressor sample.


regards


Rob S


rttech.com.au