Oil Analysis
Laboratory lubricant sampling that reveals wear metals, contamination and additive depletion long before a failure becomes visible or audible.
How it works
Lubricant is a running record of everything happening inside a gearbox, hydraulic system or bearing housing. Wear metals, contamination and additive breakdown all show up in an oil sample long before they show up as a failure.
VibroCon takes representative oil samples on site and submits them for laboratory analysis, then interprets the results against equipment-specific limits — flagging abnormal wear trends and contamination ingress, and diagnosing the root cause when a lubrication-related failure has already occurred.
What our oil analysis covers
- Ferrous and non-ferrous wear particle analysis
- Additive depletion and remaining life assessment
- Contamination detection — water, dirt, fuel
- Gearbox and bearing health evaluation
- Viscosity monitoring against specification
- Root cause analysis of lubrication-related failures
Signs it's time for oil analysis
Equipment still running a fixed-interval oil change with no data behind it
Recent contamination event — water ingress, wrong top-up oil, seal failure
Gearboxes or hydraulic systems with a history of premature wear
A push to move from time-based to condition-based maintenance
Common questions about oil analysis
How is an oil sample taken?
From a live sample point or dedicated sampling valve while the equipment is running or has recently been running, to get a representative reading rather than settled sediment.
How long does lab turnaround take?
Typically a few working days from sample submission to report, faster for urgent/critical assets on request.
Can oil analysis replace scheduled oil changes entirely?
For many assets, yes — condition-based intervals save on unnecessary oil changes while catching problems a calendar-based schedule would miss.