You likely know that there's a direct link between fluid cleanliness and component life-span. But when it comes to ISO cleanliness codes, does it all look like gibberish to you? If you answered "yes," then we can help. Watch the video below for a great primer on ISO Fluid Cleanliness Codes. You can also find the transcript below the video. 

Water is a compound that is required for practically everything on the earth. But within a lubrication or hydraulic system, it's one of the most damaging contaminants possible. Unfortunately, it's also one of the most common contaminants you'll find in your system. 

Varnish contamination is the inevitable byproduct of many degradation processes in hydraulic and lubrication systems. The effects of varnish on industrial and manufacturing systems range from the nuisance of minor downtime and routine maintenance to, worst case scenarios, multi-million dollar catastrophic failures of major capital equipment. 

Guest post today by Dan Helgerson. He is the Technical Editor of the Fluid Power Journal, where this article was originally published.

We have been talking a lot about filtration here at the steel mill. My predecessor had done a remarkable job in educating by example, demonstrating the need for good control of the fluids in our hydraulic and lubrication systems. He had helped stop the leaks and had added well-thought-out filtration systems that have resulted in substantial savings and increased productivity.

There is still a lot of work to be done and in pursuing that we have invited a number of vendors in, each offering an approach to getting and maintaining an acceptable fluid cleanliness level. The one thing that they all have brought to the table is a discussion of the ISO Cleanliness code. I was in a meeting with a group of managers when one vendor began to talk about the code. Being a Certified Fluid Power Accredited Instructor (AI), I immediately saw this as an obvious teaching moment, so I asked, “Does anyone here want to know what those numbers mean?” The answer was a quick and resounding, “No!”

Hy-Pro Vacuum Dehydrators Improve Mill Reliability

 We Hy-Pro Vacuum Dehydrators already know that maintaining low levels of water in rolling mill lubricating oil can help improve uptime, extend oil life, prevent bearing failures and increase profitability. But, what about an actual example of how a vacuum dehydrator has improved mill reliability?

In our last post, Improving Rolling Mill Oil with Vacuum Dehydration, we discussed how the demulsibility (ability of the oil to separate from water) of oil is an important characteristic that greatly influences the effectiveness of the lubricant and how a loss of demulsibility can result in poorly lubricated bearings, unplanned downtime and premature fluid replacement. 

Benefits of Vacuum Dehydration for Rolling Mill Lubricant Oil

Steel mills typically use lubricants with high demulsibility for rolling mill back-up roller bearings and chocks since relatively high levels of water contaminate the oil from quenching and descaling processes. These rolling mill lubricant oils may be known as Morgoil as they are commonly used on Morgan rolling mill systems.