Development of a Portable Wear Metal Analyzer for Field Use.
Abstract
The technique of graphite furnace atomic absorption has been utilized to develop a portable wear metal analyzer for aircraft engine lubricating oil analysis. The wear metal analyzer can simultaneously measure the lubricating oil concentrations (in parts per million) of nine wear metals, i.e., silver, aluminum, copper, chromium, iron, magnesium, nickel, silicon, and titanium. The wear metal analyzer will be packaged into two military aluminum containers weighting about 40 pounds each. When deployed for oil analysis, the two containers will be electrically connected and operated from either 115 or 230 VAC. Simultaneous element analyses are accomplished by introducing an undiluted oil sample into the graphite furnace and pushing a start button. The generated atomic absorption signals are received by the detectors through a polychromator and the wear metal concentrations are printed in approximately 1.5 minutes. A brassboard, including a nine channel spectrometer, an air/water cooled graphite furnace, a miniaturized high-current furnace power supply, and a microcomputer was constructed to test the feasibility of this approach.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1983
- Accession Number
- ADA140332
Entities
People
- J. J. O'connor
- W. H. Niu