Care for your hydraulic systems; don’t change the oil.

What if one of your critical hydraulic systems failed, maybe on a large roll stand? It could lead to a stop in production, causing unplanned downtime and productivity losses.

Hydraulic systems fail because of dirty oil

But why do hydraulic systems fail? According to a study¹, about 70% of all hydraulic system failures and component wear problems can be attributed to solid-particulate contamination within the hydraulic system.

What contaminants do to your oil

Contamination affects the oil’s lifetime. If left unchecked in a system, contaminants cause the oil to degrade continuously until it is no longer functional. You need to keep an extra eye on three types of contaminants: nanoparticles, varnish, and water.

Nanoparticles make up 80% of all particles in oil and cause severe harm. They act as a catalyst for oxidation, which accelerates the oil’s ageing process. Unfortunately, conventional filters can only remove microparticles, not nanoparticles.

Varnish causes wear and thermal stress on machinery and accelerates oil degradation due to oxidation by-products.

The presence of water in the oil can lead to corrosion and a reduction in component life. Additionally, water can alter the oil’s viscosity and degrade its lubricating properties.

Strategies to keep the oil clean

Traditional methods for ensuring clean hydraulic oil involve continuous filtering while monitoring particle count and performing oil analyses to determine when the oil needs to be changed. A combination of high-efficiency inline filters, offline (kidney loop) filtration systems, and magnetic filters is often necessary. To eliminate water, special water-absorbing filters, vacuum dehydration units, or centrifugal separators may be required. However, no matter how efficient your traditional filtration is, eventually, you will have to change the oil.

How to get the oil super clean

While traditional filters often remove large contaminants in your oil, there will still be a gradual degradation that eventually leads to having to change the oil. There is, however, another solution.

The RecondOil Box from SKF is an enhanced depth filtration system that incorporates RecondOil’s patented Double Separation Technology (DST). It features a chemical/mechanical separation process that is not limited by filter pore size, so there is no lower limit on the size of particles that can be removed from an oil. It even removes the dreaded nano-particles, together with any varnish or water that may be present.

Same oil, but cleaner

In one compact kidney system, easily installed to your application, you get continuously clean oil, resulting in reliable and stable processes. With clean hydraulics oil, your hydraulic systems will work under controlled conditions, ensuring reliability and productivity.

CO₂ reductions

As you can run your machines without changing the oil, you also avoid a large amount of CO₂ being released. According to a life cycle analysis (LCA) performed by IVL Swedish Environmental Institute in 2021, the RecondOil Box saves you 3,8 tons CO₂-eq. for every m3 industrial oil that is regenerated instead of purchasing new. In 2023, RecondOil solutions helped our customers avoid oil changes equal to 6,700 tons of CO₂e emissions.

1 “Primary Cause of Hydraulic System Failure: Dirty Oil”, Injection Molding, Volume 6, No.5, May 1998, p.24-5.