Additional additives for lubricants
Additional additives for engine oils in cars and fuels have been around for many years. Now, such agents are also available for our industrial oils, and hydraulic oils in particular. But is adding additives to lubricants worth it? Does it make sense, or are there risks involved?
In principle, modern lubricants are designed to meet all the relevant requirements to perfection. To achieve this, individual additives and additive packages of selected additives that merge well together are added to the base oils. The manufacture of the lubricants is designed in such a way that the additives can work to their full potential in later use. Adding additives at a later date therefore only makes sense in exceptional cases.
Saving resources and setting an example – How we recover solvents in the OELCHECK laboratory
When examining many lubricants and operating fluids, solvents are required as additives. After use, they are mixed with lubricating oils or greases. To date, a large amount of our solvent waste has been sent for thermal recovery by waste management companies. However, as we want to avoid waste as far as possible and save resources, OELCHECK has been recovering the solvent heptane using its own distillery since 2008. Now, we're recovering kerosene, too. This allows us to save resources, reduce our dependence on the supply of kerosene and improve our carbon footprint.
Automated visual evaluation
This compact testing line is only available in the OELCHECK laboratory, and nowhere else on the planet. The automated visual assessment was developed jointly by HF-Innovation GmbH and OELCHECK according to our requirements. It has been integrated into our laboratory's routine operations since the end of 2023 and proved its worth within such a short timeframe that a second facility was installed. Now, almost all samples can be visually assessed in the OELCHECK laboratory fully automatically.
At first glance, the 3.8 m long and 1,200 kg machines are quite inconspicuous. The interior contains several high-quality camera systems, special lighting equipment, motors, grippers, heating elements and a computer-assisted image evaluation. With this setup, the automated visual assessment is able to take on several tasks that previously had to be carried out by lab technicians in intricate processes. Eighty samples pass through each device in each sequence.
