Cambridge Viscosity has revealed that a US oil company has installed several Viscopro 1600 viscometers to monitor oil viscosity and provide real-time information on oil quality.
Installed at the company's refinery installations in North and South America, the viscometers utilise Cambridge's 392 process sensors and are Class 1 Div 1 Group B, C and D certified.
Each viscometer is mounted on a skid, where the refiner mixes gas and lube oil for a screw compressor, and when the gas/oil mixture leaves the compressor, it is recycled.
Three separation filters on the compressor skid remove 97-98 per cent of the gas out of the oil and over time, the remaining 2-3 per cent of the gas can cause the lube oil to lose its lubricity or lubrication quantities, causing the viscosity of the oil to drop.
The Viscopro 1600 viscometer senses when the oil viscosity drops to a certain level and alerts the refiner that the oil must be changed to protect the equipment and keep processes on target.
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