FieldLab 58 - Portable Oil Lab

The Needs for Portable Field Labs

Downtime for mission critical equipment, such as high value military assets on the ground or in the air, are costly terms of dollar expense, mission completion and human lives. Oil analysis is one of the most important and reliable techniques to keep these assets up and running. However, logistics hurdles including oil sampling, bottling and transportation to labs, delay the on-time delivery of oil analysis and reduce the effectiveness of the oil analysis program.

Military and commercial field service professionals managing fleets of high value assets require portable light weight devices that provide rapid oil analysis results with similar quality as oil analysis labs.

Funded by the Unite States Department of Defense (DoD) in 2009 then developed and commercialized by Spectro Scientific, the FieldLab 58 Expeditionary Fluid Analysis System (EFAS) was designed to fill this need.

Principle of Operation

The FieldLab 58 includes four oil analysis technologies into a case weighing only 15kg and powered by Li-Ion battery so a comprehensive oil analysis can be conducted in the field wherever the asset is located. The four technologies are:

Energy Dispersive (ED) XRF for elemental analysis of 13 elements for particles larger than 5 micron. They are Al, Si, Cr, Fe, Ni, Pb, Cu, Sn, Mo, Ag, Zn, and V, common wear metals.
Infrared spectroscopy based on patented FluidScan ® direct infrared spectroscopy with fliptop cell for simple sample introduction. The IR produces oil properties such as Oxidation, Nitration, Sulfation, TBN and/or TAN, anti-wear additive depletion, and contamination such as water, soot, and glycol.
Viscometer based on patented split cell design used in MiniVisc 3000 Series . It measures kinematic viscosity at 40C.
Pore blockage particle counter that measures particle count for larger than 4 microns. ISO code is also reported.

Additional Details

A filtergram coupon is used for the pore blockage particle counter; the remaining particles on the filter are scanned by XRF for elemental analysis. In the meantime, viscosity and IR tests are performed simultaneously to speed test results.

A Li-Ion battery provides enough power for up to 4 hours of continuous operation. An on board computer with a touch screen controls all the hardware, as well as the asset and reference fluid database and alarm limits for immediate oil analysis report. Data can be synchronized to a PC via a USB using Fluid Manager software.