Brand new hydraulic and lubrication oils typically do not meet stringent OEM cleanliness specifications.
The minute they leave the refinery or lube oil plant, they begin to pick up particulate contamination at every stage of transport, starting with the pipeline, rail car, tanker truck, plastic tote, and/or 55-gallon drum. These containers all have an inherent amount of particulate contamination in them, and depending on how well they have been pre-cleaned (if at all), they can be the source of significant contamination in the form of very fine particulates that cannot be seen with the naked eye (40-Micron and smaller).
To ensure that the oil that you are putting into your critical rotating equipment meets or exceeds stringent OEM cleanliness levels, you need to install properly sized filters at several different points within the oil’s flow path. Working your way backwards from the final point point-of -use dispensing nozzle, brand new oil should be filtered downstream of every pump that moves it from Point A to Point B.
Kidney-loop filtration used on bulk tanks, oil totes, and drums is also an important and effective way to ensure that new oil is absolutely clean, since the removal of particulate contamination (even with high efficiency filter elements rated Beta>1000) is not 99.9% efficient in single pass. By recirculating the oil for a period of time in a tank, passing it through one or more filter elements at least 6 6-12 times, you can be assured of lowering the particle count in brand new oil from ISO 21/19/17 to ISO 16/14/11.
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