Division 01. Oil & lubrication
Analyse, Purify, Fortify, Advise. Bought separately they are four line items. Run together against one condition history they become a programme that keeps a charge in service for years rather than months.
01. Analyse
A report full of results is worthless if nobody knows which reading matters. Every Malina panel comes back with the values, the trend, the limit each value is measured against, and the action we recommend.
The slate below is our default for critical rotating equipment. It is adjusted for the fluid type, the duty, and whatever the last round of data flagged.
| Test | Normal | Caution | Alarm |
|---|---|---|---|
| MPC ΔE | < 15 | 15–30 | > 30 |
| RPVOT retained | > 50 % | 25–50 % | < 25 % |
| ISO 4406 code | ≤ 16/14/11 | 17/15/12 | ≥ 18/16/13 |
| Water (ppm) | < 150 | 150–300 | > 300 |
| Viscosity change | ± 5 % | ± 5–10 % | > ± 10 % |
| Acid number rise | < 0.1 | 0.1–0.3 | > 0.3 |
Normal Caution Alarm Thresholds shown are typical starting points; the OEM manual and the system baseline take precedence.
02. Purify
Varnish is not filtered out by a finer filter, because at operating temperature it is dissolved, not suspended. Removing it means changing the solubility of the fluid so the deposit releases from surfaces and re-enters the oil, where filtration can finally catch it.
Soft contamination
Live dosing of an oil-soluble cleaning fluid at a controlled treat rate. Deposits already on valve spools, journals and cooler surfaces dissolve back into the fluid and are removed downstream. No outage in most systems.
Hard contamination
Kidney-loop depth filtration sized to the reservoir turnover you actually need, plus electrostatic capture for sub-micron degradation products that beta-rated media cannot hold.
Water
Vacuum dehydration for bulk removal, coalescing for free water, and desiccant breathers so humid Nigerian air stops re-wetting the reservoir every time it cools down.
Deposit control is not a universal answer. If the varnish is being generated by a mechanical fault, a hot spot, an air-entrainment problem, a failing cooler, cleaning the oil buys time but does not fix the cause.
If the answer is "change the oil", we will say change the oil. Selling a treatment into a system that needs a mechanical repair costs the client twice.
03. Fortify
A Group II or Group III base stock is chemically stable for a very long time. What runs out first is the additive package protecting it, antioxidants above all. Replenishing those is far cheaper than replacing the whole charge, and produces far less waste oil.
Step 01
RPVOT against the new-oil baseline plus voltammetry to see which antioxidant families are depleted and by how much.
Step 02
Viscosity, acid number and FTIR oxidation. If the base stock itself has degraded, replenishment is the wrong call and we say so.
Step 03
Additive package calculated against reservoir volume and the measured deficit, then blended into the running system.
Step 04
Confirmatory RPVOT and full panel after circulation, recorded against the baseline so the trend line stays continuous.
04. Advise
A lubrication programme that depends on a contractor visiting is fragile. We build the routine, then train your people to own it.
A full walk-down of every lubricated asset: fluid in use, top-up practice, sample point condition, breather condition, storage and decanting. Output is a ranked corrective list.
Most plants carry more grades than they need. We map what is actually required, identify safe consolidations, and cut the number of products you stock and can cross-contaminate.
Drum storage, filtration on receipt, sealed transfer, labelling and colour coding. Most contamination enters the system long before the oil reaches the machine.
Practical sessions for maintenance technicians and reliability engineers: correct sampling technique, reading a report, when to escalate, and what each alarm actually means.
Next step
A baseline audit on your most critical system tells you whether there is a programme worth running at all.
