One of our V1S vacuum dehydrators was recently put to the test in a marine application with hydraulic oil contaminated by more than 2500 ppm of water. Did it sink or swim? Find out below.

The Problem: Failed Hydraulics Seal and Lost Productivity

When a seal fails on a net hauler hydraulics system out at sea, the costs and lost profits stack up quickly. In this instance, salt water began entering the hydraulic fluid on a 245 ft (75 m) purse seine through a seal leak, rendering the net hauler out of commission.

Faced with frequent fluid exchanges at a cost of $9,300 plus disposal, or worse, substantially larger lost profits from downtime for replacement of the seal, the vessel owner was in desperate need for a solution to allow him to continue operating without fear of malfunctioning equipment.

If the hydraulic, lubricating, compressor or gear oil you use is not made of a water base in formulation , then water is considered a contaminant and must be recognized and managed. 

There are three types of water in a typical system: free water , emulsified water and dissolved water. The water saturation point of most oil, that point above which water is in a free form, is 200-400ppm, depending on age and condition. 

Using 100ppm for an upper water limit for most systems using mineral base oils, this means all free and emulsified water and a significant portion of dissolved water must be removed.

A vacuum dehydrator is one of the very few methods to remove dissolved water from oil. Let's take a look at these three types of water in your system. It will give you a solid foundation for how the vacuum dehydrator works in the end.

Moisture contamination is inherent in the world we live in. In fact, it's all around us; that's what makes it so difficult when it comes to keeping water out of your oil.

The level of water vapor in the air is known as humidity. For example, If there is 80% humidity, the air contains 80% of the total amount of water vapor it can hold at the given temperature. Thus, there's always an amount of water in the air.

At the end of Part 2, we discussed the winning nature of vacuum dehydration. If you missed Part 1 in the series, you can find it here. 

Did you know that hydrogen is the friendliest molecule - meaning that it is most likely seeking partners to attach to? Similarly, the suspended particles in oil actively look for particles to join forces, so they pair with the water. 

This particulate contamination is the catalyst guilty of continuing the degradation of the oil and the increase of emulsified water. The more water there is, the more oxidation that occurrs. This also increases various acids that form as the molecules break down. These acids attack seals, hoses, pumps and metal.

If you're just tuning in and didn't catch the first part of our steel mill and lube oil series, click here.

When we left off, we just determined how the high levels of emulsified water and high particulate contamination levels work together to cause bearing failure and reduce oil life. So, how do we prevent this expensive combination from happening? We're glad you asked!

Premium oils keep steel mills running. It's crucial to protect their quality in order to keep the mills fully functioning. 

In both hot and cold steel mill production, high-demulsibility lubricant is used for backup roller bearing lubrication. Some of these oils are referred to as SD, which stands for super-demulsibility. Not surprisingly, these SD oils are a premium product and come at a premium price. If a manufacturer wants to invest in these big-ticket oils, they obviously want to go to great lengths in order to keep them clean and fully functioning.

Join us for this three-part series as we take an in-depth look at improving rolling mill lube oil performance and useful life.

We 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.