Contamination Control
Research shows that 80% of equipment failures and breakdowns are caused by contaminants like dirt, metal particles, and water in the equipment oil. Ensuring your equipment gets clean and dry oil increases equipment uptime. It also extends the life of equipment components and oil. This improves the return on investment for your equipment. Reducing the need to perform maintenance can also increase safety and reduce accidents.
The top reasons why oil becomes dirty are:
- The supplier delivered dirty oil
- Dirt and water enter the equipment
- Improper oil storage and handling
- Internal equipment component wear
There are many ways that dirt and water can enter a piece of equipment and end up in the oil reservoir.
The most common entry point to the oil supply is through the equipment’s breather port. There is a common belief that dirt and water do not enter through the breather port. To save money, people buy inexpensive steel wool breathers or J-tubes. J-tubes are sometimes called candy cane breather vents.
Air flows in both directions through a breather port. To keep dirt and water from entering through the breather port, it is important to use a desiccant breather. This helps prevent any oil and water emulsion in addition to an oils demulsibility.
Industrial Sealing & Lubrication carries Des-Case Dessicant breathers. Des-Case Dessicant Breathers eliminate water and contaminants.
Des-Case breathers collect airborne solid particles using a dual, anti-static filter system. This reduces the abrasives and other contaminants that create sludge build-up in the fluid reservoir.
Des-Case breathers absorb unwanted moisture inside industrial equipment using a silica gel technology. The silica gel in these breathers remove moisture that can lead to corrosion, shorten fluid life, and deplete additives.
Features
- Bi-Directional Air Flow – A 360o air flow allows air to be breathed in and out as fluid level changes or differential pressures occur.
- Dual Filtration System – A two micron filter is located at the top and bottom of the silica gel bed. The top filter removes particle contamination from atmospheric air. The bottom helps remove dust created by the silica gel beads when they make contact with each other.
- Water Vapor Absorbent – The silica gel used absorbs up to 40% of its own weight.
- Durable Construction – Watchdog desiccant breathers are manufactured from rugged ABS plastic and impact modified acrylic.
- Color Indicator – When maximum absorption is reached, the silica gel turns from gold to dark green to indicate it is time to be replaced.
- Activated Carbon – For some models, as air is expelled, it passes through activated carbon which removes oil vapors, fumes, and odors.
Are You Ready To Increase Your Return On Investments?
If you’re ready to extend the life of your equipment components and oil, and increase the return on investment for your equipment, contact us and one of our trained reliability specialists will give you a free oil analysis and show you how to get started reducing contaminants in your oil.