Abstract

Varnish accumulation resulting from lubricant degradation can adversely affect the efficient operation of lubricated mechanical systems. There are various chemical cleaners commercially available that claim to remove varnish, but data enabling quantitative comparisons of the performance of these cleaners are not available. This article reports the use of a custom test system that enables in situ imaging of varnish removal to directly compare nine commercially available chemical cleaners in a blinded study. Multiple qualitative and quantitative metrics were used to evaluate the performance of the cleaners. A wide range of varnish removal efficiency was observed from cleaner to cleaner, from complete varnish removal in just a few hours to almost no removal after tens of hours of testing. The results demonstrated the utility of the test rig for characterizing and measuring varnish removal and emphasized the importance of quantitative data when selecting a chemical cleaner for a given application.

摘要

润滑剂降解导致的清漆堆积会对润滑机械系统的有效运行产生不利影响。市面上有多种化学清洁剂声称可以去除清漆，但无法对这些清洁剂的性能进行定量比较的数据。本文报告了使用定制测试系统，该系统能够对清漆去除进行原位成像，以直接比较盲法研究中的九种市售化学清洁剂。多个定性和定量指标用于评估清洁剂的性能。观察到从清洁剂到清洁剂的各种清漆去除效率，从在短短几小时内完全去除清漆到经过数十小时测试后几乎没有去除。