Fluid Life constantly strives to increase the profitability and reliability your oil analysis program. One of the ways to improve the effectiveness of oil analysis results is through flagging limits – cutting down on nuisance flags and alerting problems. In our efforts to give you the best flagging limits, we perform statistical updates approximately annually to ensure that our oil analysis data interpretations are as current as your ever-changing technology.
What’s New?
Fluid Life has updated the histograms for Sample Rank and the flag limits derived from them. As we now have more results than ever before, we’ve moved up the minimum number of results we use to make a histogram.
Based on the industry you’re in and the specific type of equipment you have, we’ll find the most specific flagging limits we can to generate the most relevant flag alerts for you. If you have already given us a set of limits to use, we’ll continue to apply them for you as before.
Also new in 2021:
- The new flag limits for Oxidation, Nitration are mostly higher than before, and you’ll see less flags on these tests and a lower Sample Rank. As sulfur has been removed from almost all fuels and oils, Sulphation is almost never a concern and will be flagged less often and scored lower for Sample Rank.
- We have removed the unacceptable flag for some limits where the data shows the gap between reportable and severe is too small to reliably have an unacceptable level within repeatability performance.
- For Sodium and Potassium in engines, we’ve moved to a fixed flag of reportable at 20ppm across all makes, models, and industries.
- Sample Rank will now consider viscosities higher than typical as less of a concern compared to lower than typical. This brings Sample Ranks down for un-sheared oils, samples taken close to new, or just on the thick side but not flagged.
Supplying Correct Manufacturer & Model Information
The new limits are industry and equipment specific, so getting the lab the correct manufacturer and model information is even more important than it was before. You may notice some cases where the flag limits are now lower and a few that are now higher, this is mostly likely due to the new limits being more specific to the type of equipment reported to the lab. If you have any questions on your results, please feel free to contact the lab as always.
If you would like to give additional information (sub-model information can now be managed in myLab) about the units or components at your site, please contact your Account Manager or complete the Contact Us form.
Does Your Site Have Unique Operating Conditions or Unique Assets?
Fluid Life understands that flagging limits work the best with large quantities of the same component across large industries that are tested at our labs. If your site has unique operating conditions, assets, or has particular reliability goals, then learn more about flagging optimization so you can benefit from site specific flagging limits.