Applications

LUBEMASTER Oil Cleaning and Filtration Equipment was originally developed to fill a need to clean lubricating oil in the cheapest possible way, so as to allow the existing oil to stay in service whilst ever the oil remained suitable for its intended use.

Traditionally, one of the principal functions of oil was to flush away the contamination accumulated in a compartment throughout the normal lifespan of the oil – this was achieved by changing the oil – contamination flushed – oil disposed of!

Often the oil itself, although loaded with contaminants, remains in perfectly good condition but ends up at the recyclers, despite the fact that it still retains plenty of useful life. Today’s modern Oil Analysis Laboratories can easily test and verify the condition of the oil.

Lubemaster Oil Cleaning and Filtration Equipment, originally designed for cleaning hydraulic and gear oils, has enjoyed success in almost every area where oils are used. With its centrifuge technology to remove particles, and vacuum technology for water removal giving the added advantage of removing the gases entrapped within the oil. Oil can usually be restored back to original condition, normally without the use of filters and mostly whilst the equipment remains on line.

Some of the more common oil and fuel filtering applications include-

LUBRICATING OIL can readily be cleaned from the lightest grade of hydraulic oils through to the heavy 680 cSt gear oils; all with the same machine on the same settings at the same flow. Particle contamination can be removed to sub-micron levels and water reduced to around 30ppm in all instances. Some of our more common applications are hydraulic, turbine, compressor and gear oils to name just a few.
DIESEL FUEL can readily be dehydrated and cleaned with Lubemaster oil cleaning technology. Water can be readily reduced to 30 ppm and particles removed to sub-micron levels, rendering the fuel in pristine condition, suitable for use in any diesel combustion engine.
TRANSFORMER OIL  One of the unexpected successes with our Lubemaster oil filtration unit was its success in cleaning and restoring transformer insulating oils which are often cleaned to below 1um with moisture levels to as low as 3ppm. All gases are removed with the vacuum dehydration system. Lubemaster also offers our Fullers Earth Filtration Unit add-on system which has the capability of reducing the acid levels and restoring the colour of the insulating oil, thus restoring transformer oil back to as new specifications. Flows are available from zero to 8,400 litres per hour
HEAT TRANSFER OIL  The build-up of carbon is the main reason for contamination in heat transfer applications. To date the acceptable practice has been to change the oil and top up with new oil. This is often a very expensive practice as usually these types of systems contain huge volumes of oil which can exceed 100,000 litres and can cost up to $13 per litre! Lubemaster Oil Filtration equipment will remove the carbon and together with our Fullers Earth Filtration system, the oil can be restored to as new condition and rendered suitable for many years of continued service life.
HOT OIL FLUSHING Our Lubemaster Hot Oil Flushing rig offers performance unequalled in today’s market. Unlike similar systems, our centrifuge will remove the contaminants to sub-micron levels while the vacuum system will dehydrate the oil as it is being cleaned.Our present flagship is our OS770 flushing rig which has a variable speed to 800 lpm, with a 30 kW in line heater, particle counter, centrifuge and vacuum dehydration, together with a 10um primary and 2um secondary filters.Cleanliness levels to ISO4406 13/11/17 were achieved after Hot Oil Flushing in an 1800 litre system on the gas pipeline compressors with Reynolds 7000 flow in 4” pipe, well inside 24 hours of circulation per unit. This represents a huge cost saving to construction crews as the flushing specs are achieved in the shortest possible timeframe to clear the area for continued installation.
ENGINES  We do not recommend our Lubemaster Oil Filtration Units for cleaning engine oil as the possibility of cross contamination provides too great a risk. Additionally, it should never be necessary to remove water from an engine’s oil. Rather, we fit the centrifuge only to the engine, which is driven by the engine’s oil system and will continuously clean the oil as the engine operates. This will maintain the engine oil in pristine condition and will allow the oil life to be extended many times normal practice. In fact, with today’s low sulphur fuels, improved oil technology and improved combustion efficiency, the practice of oil change on condition is strongly advised. Changing oil on condition can potentially result in greatly reduced lube & maintenance expenditure representing huge cost savings. Drain intervals up to 100,000 Klms in highway trucks can be expected without any risk, however close monitoring with a reliable and pro-active laboratory is mandatory. Off road and mining applications can enjoy huge savings by applying this practice through multiplying drain intervals several fold and reducing oil spend substantially.
WASTE OIL CLEANING  Disposing of waste oil is a cost of the past. All waste hydrocarbons from a site can be cleaned using our Lubemaster Oil Cleaning and Filtration systems, which can render the oil suitable for use as a diesel fuel substitute for use in diesel engine fuel or as a diesel substitute in explosives. With this practice, a waste product becomes a valuable asset produced at a minimal cost; where every litre of waste oil becomes a litre of diesel. In most off road engines the mix rate of 2% oil/diesel will take care of all of the waste oil on any site. Mixes up to 45% have been used in large generators without showing any detrimental environmental effect or affecting the engine’s elements. By cleaning the oil to sub-micron levels which removes the large soot particles from waste engine oil, the lubricity quality of the diesel can be enhanced, providing an improved lubricant to the pump and injector systems. Varnishing on the elements is eliminated due to the cleanliness achieved with the waste oil.