This section will give you a basic understanding in our lubricating oils
have changed cleaning of lubricating oils conventional lube oil cleaning
purifier or clarifier no oil losses vs. no water in oil for benefits of using L
cap for lube oil
why use an L cap for separating lubricating oil during the last few
years the demands on lubricating oils for the diesel engine have been changed
fuel quality the fuel of today contains more sulfur and slow-burning components
such as asphaltenes than before the aromatisse attea fuels
has increased engine designs have changed in order to reduce operating
costs and comfort four-cylinder the engine pressure and temperatures have
increased to allow both less and heavier fuel oil to be burnt the lube oil
consumption has been reduced there has also been a trend towards smaller sub
volumes to reduce investment cost also the operating characteristics of low
medium and high speed engines those different challenges in lube oil
treatment these changes increase the stress on and the amount of contaminants
in the lube oil lube oils have been developed to meet the increased demands
a higher sulfur content in the fuel oil has been counteracted by a higher total
base number in order to keep the engine clean and avoid concentration of sludge
particles more detergent and dispersant additives are used contaminants in the
lube oils must be efficiently removed by cleaning equipment with a constantly
high separation performance the detergent and dispersant additives in
the lube oil makes separation a difficult task these additives keep the
particles small and in suspension make sure the engine crankcase is kept clean
removal of water removal of water is also more difficult due to the
dispersant additives in the oil in extreme cases it is even possible that
the lube oil picks up water from the water seal from a conventional purifier
if the oil and water are brought into turbulent contact with each other
combustion byproducts combustion byproducts in the lube oil also change
depending on the properties of the fuel separated sludge is stickier which makes
it difficult to discharge from self-cleaning centrifugal separators we
could ask the question if there was no water in the oil
why use a purifier at all certainly if there was water ingress into the engine
crankcase we could only remove it with the clarifier by discharge also if there
is no water at the periphery of the bowl thus lunch will become extremely hard a
discharge could result in the uneven removal of the sludge and possibly
leading to imbalance no displacement of the oil prior to discharge would mean
fry oil losses control of separation efficiency in a clarifier for optimum
separation efficiency separated water must never enter the disk stack the
separated water can only be discharged with a sludge through the sludge ports
as the water outlet is closed off no oil losses and no water in the oil the
interface position will move towards the periphery if the temperature decreases
or if the flow rate density or viscosity increase should the interface reach the
outside of the top disk a broken water seal will occur with consequent oil loss
the interface position will move into the disk stack if the temperature
increases or if the flow rate density or viscosity decrease
should the interface enter the disk stack water will escape with a clean oil
into the oil outlet consequences of water in the oil water in the clean oil
outlet can have a depleting effect on the additives apart from changing the
lube oil properties it can lead to increased deposits on the separator Bowl
discs thereby reducing the separator performance checking and fitting the
gravity disc is a time-consuming and unpleasant task since the correct
gravity disc is defined as the largest disc that does not cause a broken water
seal it can be a frustrating trial and error process alarm for broken water
seals can be frequent consequently a smaller gravity disc tends to be
selected with the risk that the oil is not adequately cleaned because the
interface enters the disc stack the most common factor that affects the interface
position in lube oil cleaning is the temperature to maintain a sufficiently
constant temperature a PI controller slash heater that can maintain the
temperature within plus minus 2 degree Celsius must be used historically
purifiers are used for cleaning diesel engine lubricating oil
the interface in the bowl between the water and the oil can be easily
influenced by process variations the correct selection of the gravity disk is
important lubricating oil losses can be constantly inefficient cleaning can be
very costly can increased pension wear and filter maintenance lpx separator the
L cap concept applied on the L o px separation system differs from a
conventional system in that the L o px separator basically operates as a
clarifier but utilizes water addition for oil displacement and sludge
conditioning the separator is thus capable of handling water in the lube
oil the separator is a partial discharge type and no gravity disc is used
displacement and conditioning water are added as required and separated sludge
and water is automatically discharged whenever necessary
al cap concept versus conventional separator systems the benefits of the L
cap concept for cleaning of lubricating oils in comparison with a conventional
separator system are improved functional safety less maintenance lower cost for
the user more suitable to modern day lubricating oil demands benefits the
benefits achieved by using the L cap solution are based upon the features of
safety reduction of man-hours and cost gravity disc no gravity disc disc stack
continuous optimum separation efficiency as water and sludge in the pole never
reaches the disk stack water content continuous monitoring of the cleaned oil
for water content water leakage indication of water
leakage into the system oil losses no oil losses and no water in the cleaned
oil by always having correct amount of water in the bowl self adaptive addition
of displacement water water consumption reduced water
consumption bone cleanliness improved cleanliness of the bowl as sludge and
water are prevented from reaching the disk stack
manual supervision reduced need for manual supervision and adjustment as no
adjustable components and no gravity disc
maintenance reduced maintenance and manual cleaning of the separator this
also reduces spare part consumption system reliability fewer alarms due to
the higher system reliability