The Ferrous Particle Problem - Summary
The Magnom™ filter, has an unsurpassed ability to remove microscopic ferrous particles from fluid systems, whether open or closed.
Well, you may say 'So what? our fluids are clean to ISO standards - surely you can't do better than that or need to?'
Actually you can do better - much better, and you should! Here we see a bearing from a typical piston pump, after the pump had failed catastrophically because of erosive wear from ferrous contaminants. The picture speaks for itself.
In this section we will explain how micron scale ferrous contaminants are much more dangerous than visible particles, leading to a chain reaction of wear, but are passed over by the ISO standards.
By the way, these notes apply especially to closed systems, such as engines, hydraulics, pumps and transmissions, where small amounts of contaminant work away for a long period.
However ferrous particles are also a key contaminant in open systems - industrial processing, machine tooling, washing etc, where huge amounts of ferrous particles need to be removed from the fluids each day, before they can cause significant damage to the final product.
The Magnom™ principle is equally useful in both environments - however different products from the range are appropriate in different situations!
Understanding why microscopic ferrous particles damage fluid systems
1: Contamination
There are three sorts of contamination, all of which will leave ferrous particles damaging your fluid system.
Read more about contamination types...
2: Ferrous particles, key contaminants and what they do
Ferrous particles are usually the hardest, most abrasive contaminants present. They erode yet more particles, leading to a chain reaction of wear.
Read more about chain reaction of wear...
3: Worst case situation
Wear causes maximum damage when particles are of the same size as dynamic tolerances (i.e. between moving parts). In modern close tolerance machines this is typically from 1 to 20 microns.
Read more about impact of close tolerances...
4: Example of wear
Some examples of modern fluid systems (mainly pumps) showing location of wear and tolerance size.
5: ISO standards - not the complete story
ISO standards allow microscopic ferrous particles within set amounts, and do not even consider particles under 4 micron, but these can be the most damaging.
Read more about ISO cleaniness standards...
6: Manufacturers and filtering
Manufacturers do not always optimise filtering on a system, and may have a vested interest in frequent servicing
Read more about system manufacturers...
Conclusions
In summary:
- Removal of fine ferrous debris down to one micron in size is absolutely key to enhanced lifetime and reduced downtime
- It is becoming essential as system dynamic clearances are reduced with increasing use of valves, close tolerance pumps and immersed circuitry
- Often the customer is unaware a problem because the contamination cannot be seen by the naked eye and ISO cleanliness standards do not even consider particulate less than 4 micron
- Very careful thought has to be given to the filtration of fine ferrous particles, because the manufacturer of your system may not have done so
Follow this link to understand how the Magnom™ works - removing these microscopic particles with minimal pressure drops whilst maintaining full flow capacity.