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For More information, please call 877-861-2722, or email at [email protected].

Why is an oil analysis important?

How can an oil analysis save you big?

An oil analysis can prevent problems later down the road. It's often been referred to as the blood test for your compressor. Just like a blood test can tell you about your health and early alerts to impending problems, an analysis can do the same for your compressor.

What does an oil analysis tell you?

Doctor holding a stethoscope
An oil analysis is a quick, non-harmful way to check the health of your air compressor by looking at what is in the lubricant. Since your oil is used for lubrication and cooling, it's a perfect sample to evaluate. By analyzing a sample of used machine oil, you can determine the amount of contamination, the wear rates and overall condition of your machine. The real benefit of an oil analysis is that it acts as an early warning system, alerting you to potential problems before the air compressor goes down or has failure. When Chicago Pneumatic runs an oil analysis on your machine, we are looking for wear metals, contaminants and additives that are present in your lubricant. Below are examples of those types of elements.

Wear Metals: Iron, Chromium, Nickel, Aluminum, Lead, Copper, Tin, Silver, Titanium, Vanadium.

Contaminants: Silicon, Sodium, Potassium

Additives: Boron, Molybdenum, Phosphorus, Zinc, Calcium, Barium, Magnesium, Antimony

What do the oil analysis results look like?

An oil analysis report will show a list of all the metals, contaminants and additives mentioned above with an overall number beside each. A lab will generate a report that will scale the level of risks of normal, monitor, abnormal and even critical. Note, one of the most critical roles of a compressor lubricant offers is to provide heat removal in the air end. As the air is compressed, it generates a lot of heat. If this heat is not removed rapidly, the bearings, seals and gears will all fail rapidly. Poor heat removal can be traced to contaminated lubricant or the incorrect lubricant type being used.

Helpful Tips for your Air Compressor

new rotair and fluidtech

1. Monitor contamination around the air compressor: Is your air compressor being stored in a room that you are also doing granite grinding? You wear a mask to protect yourself from breathing in those contaminants, the air compressor needs to be protected from those elements also.

2. Lubricants: Are you using the right oil? Make sure you are feeding the correct oil into your machine. All user manuals include the type of oil, usually their own OEM manufacturer lubricants, to be used for that machine.

3. Chicago Pneumatic 5-Year Warranty for Rotary Screws: To maintain warranty coverage, Original parts and lubricants must be used in the compressor, oil sampling must be conducted every 2000 hours, and recommendations based on the results of the oil sample analysis must be followed.

Please contact [email protected] for additional information about oil analysis or warranty information. For tech support for any Chicago Pneumatic product, please call us at (877)861-2722, opt 1. Or email us directly at [email protected] . We look forward to helping.

Jim Phillis

You ask, we answer. Visit our Expert Corner for every #CPTechThursday to find answers to common industry questions and highlights of CP's high-quality compressors. We love providing our customers with answers to their technical questions.

Jim Phillis , Technical Support Chicago Pneumatic

Do you have an idea for a #cptechthursday article? Let us know!

CP service technician in fron t of CP compressor
Whether you have questions about which compressor is right for you, or if you’re ready to improve your operations and start saving on expenses. Chicago Pneumatic has been around for over 100 years because we offer reliable and hardworking air compressors, as well as expert advice and support.

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