The Terra Analytical lab has been involved in a diverse range of special projects including alternative fuels development, oil company product trials and quality control testing. The equipment we have is predominantly focused on the testing of used equipment fluids, but we can often assist in solving other problems.
Contact us if you think we may be able to assist with anything else.
The Advanced Test Kit can also be used for grease. We can perform elemental analysis by XRF (X-Ray) which provides the metal content in mg/kg (parts per million). We also include PQ (ferromagnetic index) which provides a measure of the iron/steel content which is typically quite high in most grease applications. Lubricating grease is essentially a soap-thickened oil. The most used soap thickener is a lithium-based soap. XRF cannot detect the first 10 elements of the periodic table, which includes lithium. (If necessary, we can dilute grease with solvent and run ICP to detect lithium but this is an additional test not covered by the standard prepaid kit). Most other grease additives and wear metals can be detected and changes in grease formulation or wear metal rates can be monitored.
Waste oil is typically collected and burnt for fuel. Local council regulations place limits on certain contaminants and may require testing to prove compliance. Let us know your specific requirements as we may be able to cover most if not all of the tests you need.
In some cases, it may be necessary to analyse the material found in filters. This is non-standard testing and can be relatively expensive due to the materials and labour involved (ultra-filtered solvents etc). Filters are designed to trap debris and while we can provide an analysis of this debris it can be difficult to know what is normal or abnormal. We would recommend that routine oil testing can provide more useful data and abnormal results are much more obvious, but there can be special cases where filter analysis is worthwhile. Please let us know if we can help.
Beyond fluid analysis, we have technology solutions for your Fleet Management and Condition Monitoring needs. Find out more about these services.