Oil circulation can be found in many applications, from hydraulic systems, to air compressors, vacuum pumps and even in gearboxes. In most cases of oil circulation, the system always contain an oil cooler where oil released is heated and returned to the oil tank for the next oil cycle.
Depending on OEM recommendation, customer evaluation, customer budget or the condition of the application (high contamination, requirement of regular maintenance), we may recommend customers to use high quality Polyalphaolefin (PAO) oil, and typically mineral-based oil in their circulation systems.
Despite the kind of oil used, after a few years, trends generally show an increase in oil temperature. In serious cases, the equipment sensor may shut down a machine due to overheating. When a customer resets the system and reboot the machine, it will fail to run again due to the strong heat. Some customers may thus sink in panic mode and place their blame on the oil quality.
Do not stress out, because that is a regular technical problem which may happen with any system and oil in spite of PAO or mineral oil used in circulation. After a certain amount of time, varnish tends to build up in the piping system of various oil coolers. And since oil varnish is considered as a heat isolation material, it prevents heat releasing or heat exchanging at oil cooler. The high temperature oil hence proceeds to leave the oil cooler and return at nearly same temperature. As the oil temperature keeps rising, the machine runs at a higher temperature, and is led to shut down via the temperature sensor due to safety concerns.
To handle the problem, we simply recommend our customers to clean and flush the oil circuit with Klüber Summit Varnasolv. The procedure is exactly the same when we use Varnasolv to clean air compressor circuit.
Within a year, our Representive Office in Vietnam has handled two such cases with separate global companies. The overall results made our customers very confident with Klüber Lubrication’s support services.
Written by:
Thanh Nghi Pham, KLSEA
