Oil sample analysis calculator and method of using the same

• US 7,917,307 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2008
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alstom Transportation, Inc. (Alstom SA)
• Original Assignee: Alstom Transportation, Inc. (Alstom SA)
• Inventors: Bolt, Donald W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Feliciano; Eliseo Ramos
• Assistant Examiner(s): Desta; Elias
• Application Number:
  US12/188,409
• Publication Number:
  US 20100036619A1
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• Field of Search: 702/22, 702/100, 702/182, 731/520.9, 166/250.01, 208/177, 208/179, 208/308, 196/46, 196/155
• US Class Current: 702/22
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/2888 Lubricating oil characteristics, e.g. deterioration lubricating properties G01N33/30

Abstract

In an oil sample analysis calculator (100) for analyzing results of oil samples from an engine, the oil sample analysis calculator (100) includes an input module (110) which receives an input data set (140), a processing module (130) which receives the input data set (140) from the input module (110) and corrects the input data set (140) based on at least one of an amount of oil added to the engine and an amount of oil removed from the engine, and an output module (120) which receives the input data set (140) corrected by the processing module (130) and outputs an output data set (150).

Claims

1. An oil sample analysis calculator for analyzing results of oil samples from an engine, the oil sample analysis calculator comprising:

an input module which receives an input data set, the input data set includes concentration levels of at least one of metallic and chemical contaminants in an oil sample;

a processing module which receives the input data set from the input module and corrects the input data set based on at least one of an amount of oil added to the engine and an amount of oil removed from the engine; and

an output module which receives the input data set corrected by the processing module and outputs an output data set,

wherein the output data set comprises one of a trend warning and a rate of change warning based on a predetermined set point,

wherein the input data set comprises;

a first oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a first oil sample;

a second oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a second oil sample taken after the first oil sample; and

a third oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a third oil sample taken after the second oil sample, and

wherein the processing module comprises an algorithm which compares the first oil contaminant concentration, the second oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration for generating the output data set.

2. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 1, wherein the engine is a diesel engine.

3. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 2, wherein the engine is a railroad locomotive engine.

4. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 1, further comprising an input data correction module connected to the input module, wherein the input data correction module additionally corrects errors in the input data set before the input data set is received by the processing module.

5. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 1, wherein the input data set comprises at least one of iron (Fe) concentration, lead (Pb) concentration, copper (Cu) concentration, tin (Sn) concentration, boron (B) concentration, nickel (Ni) concentration, aluminum (Al) concentration, silicon (Si) concentration, sodium (Na) concentration, chromium (Cr) concentration, calcium (Ca) concentration, silver (Ag) concentration, zinc (Zn) concentration, pentane insolubles concentration, fuel concentration, oil additive concentration, viscosity, flashpoint and pH.

6. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 5, wherein the output data set comprises at least one of one of corrected iron (Fe) concentration, corrected lead (Pb) concentration, corrected copper (Cu) concentration, corrected tin (Sn) concentration, corrected boron (B) concentration, corrected nickel (Ni) concentration, corrected aluminum (Al) concentration, corrected silicon (Si) concentration, corrected sodium (Na) concentration, corrected chromium (Cr) concentration, corrected calcium (Ca) concentration, corrected silver (Ag) concentration, corrected zinc (Zn) concentration, corrected pentane insolubles concentration, corrected fuel concentration, corrected oil additive concentration, corrected viscosity, corrected flashpoint and corrected pH.

7. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 6, wherein the processing module comprises:

a timeline generation part which generates a graph of the at least one of iron (Fe) concentration, lead (Pb) concentration, copper (Cu) concentration, tin (Sn) concentration, boron (B) concentration, nickel (Ni) concentration, aluminum (Al) concentration, silicon (Si) concentration, sodium (Na) concentration, chromium (Cr) concentration, calcium (Ca) concentration, silver (Ag) concentration, zinc (Zn) concentration, pentane insolubles concentration, fuel concentration, oil additive concentration, viscosity, flashpoint and pH versus time; and

a timeline correction part connected to the timeline generation part, wherein the timeline correction part corrects the at least one of iron (Fe) concentration, lead (Pb) concentration, copper (Cu) concentration, tin (Sn) concentration, boron (B) concentration, nickel (Ni) concentration, aluminum (Al) concentration, silicon (Si) concentration, sodium (Na) concentration, chromium (Cr) concentration, calcium (Ca) concentration, silver (Ag) concentration, zinc (Zn) concentration, pentane insolubles concentration, fuel concentration, oil additive concentration, viscosity, flashpoint and pH, based on the at least one of the amount of oil added to the engine and the amount of oil removed from the engine, to generate a graph of the at least one of one of corrected iron (Fe) concentration, corrected lead (Pb) concentration, corrected copper (Cu) concentration, corrected tin (Sn) concentration, corrected boron (B) concentration, corrected nickel (Ni) concentration, corrected aluminum (Al) concentration, corrected silicon (Si) concentration, corrected sodium (Na) concentration, corrected chromium (Cr) concentration, corrected calcium (Ca) concentration, corrected silver (Ag) concentration, corrected zinc (Zn) concentration, corrected pentane insolubles concentration, corrected fuel concentration, corrected oil additive concentration, corrected viscosity, corrected flashpoint and corrected pH versus time.

8. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 1, wherein

the input data set comprises two or more of iron (Fe) concentration, lead (Pb) concentration, copper (Cu) concentration, tin (Sn) concentration, boron (B) concentration, nickel (Ni) concentration, aluminum (Al) concentration, silicon (Si) concentration, sodium (Na) concentration, chromium (Cr) concentration, calcium (Ca) concentration, silver (Ag) concentration, zinc (Zn) concentration, pentane insolubles concentration, fuel concentration, oil additive concentration, viscosity, flashpoint and pH, and

the at least two or more of iron (Fe) concentration, lead (Pb) concentration, copper (Cu) concentration, tin (Sn) concentration, boron (B) concentration, nickel (Ni) concentration, aluminum (Al) concentration, silicon (Si) concentration, sodium (Na) concentration, chromium (Cr) concentration, calcium (Ca) concentration, silver (Ag) concentration, zinc (Zn) concentration, pentane insolubles concentration, fuel concentration, oil additive concentration, viscosity, flashpoint and pH are inputted to the input module simultaneously.

9. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 1, wherein the predetermined set point is included in the output module.

10. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 1, wherein

the algorithm removes the second oil contaminant concentration from the input data set when the second oil contaminant concentration is less than the first oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration is greater than the first oil contaminant concentration, and

the algorithm corrects the second oil sample to correspond to a trend based on at least the first oil sample concentration when the second oil contaminant concentration is less than the first oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration is greater than the first oil contaminant concentration but less than the second oil contaminant concentration.

11. The oil sample analysis calculator of claim 10, wherein the first oil contaminant concentration, the second oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration comprise one of iron (Fe) concentration, lead (Pb) concentration, copper (Cu) concentration, tin (Sn) concentration, boron (B) concentration, nickel (Ni) concentration, aluminum (Al) concentration, silicon (Si) concentration, sodium (Na) concentration, chromium (Cr) concentration, calcium (Ca) concentration, silver (Ag) concentration, zinc (Zn) concentration, pentane insolubles concentration, fuel concentration, oil additive concentration, viscosity, flashpoint and pH.

12. A method for performing oil sample trend analysis, the method comprising:

inputting an input data set corresponding to concentration levels of at least one of metallic and chemical contaminants of an oil sample from an engine to an input module;

correcting the input data set based on at least one of an amount of oil added to the engine and an amount of oil removed from the engine to generate a corrected input data set using a processing module connected to the input module;

generating a graph of the corrected input data set versus time; and

outputting the corrected input data set and the graph of the corrected input data set versus time via an output module,

wherein the corrected input data set comprises one of a trend warning and a rate of change warning based on a predetermined set point,

wherein the input data set comprises;

a first oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a first oil sample;

a second oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a second oil sample taken after the first oil sample; and

a third oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a third oil sample taken after the second oil sample, and

wherein the correcting the input data set based on the at least one of the amount of oil added to the engine and the amount of oil removed from the engine comprises;

comparing the first oil contaminant concentration, the second oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration for outputting the corrected input data set and the graph of the corrected input data set versus time.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising additionally correcting errors in the input data set using an input data correction module before the correcting the input data set based on the amount of oil added to the engine and the amount of oil removed from the engine.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein

removing the second oil contaminant concentration from the input data set when the second oil contaminant concentration is less than the first oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration is greater than the first oil contaminant concentration;

and

correcting the second oil sample to correspond to a trend based on at least the first oil sample concentration when the second oil contaminant concentration is less than the first oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration is greater than the first oil contaminant concentration but less than the third oil contaminant concentration.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the first oil contaminant concentration, the second oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration comprise one of iron (Fe) concentration, lead (Pb) concentration, copper (Cu) concentration, tin (Sn) concentration, boron (B) concentration, nickel (Ni) concentration, aluminum (Al) concentration, silicon (Si) concentration, sodium (Na) concentration, chromium (Cr) concentration, calcium (Ca) concentration, silver (Ag) concentration, zinc (Zn) concentration, pentane insolubles concentration, fuel concentration, oil additive concentration, viscosity, flashpoint and pH.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein

the outputting the corrected input data set and the graph of the corrected input data set versus time comprises outputting the one of a trend warning and a rate of change warning, and

the predetermined set point is stored in the output module.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the engine is a diesel locomotive engine.

18. A method for performing oil sample trend analysis, the method comprising:

inputting an input data set corresponding to analysis results of an oil sample from an engine to an input module, the input data set comprising;

a first oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a first oil sample;

a second oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a second oil sample taken after the first oil sample; and

a third oil contaminant concentration corresponding to a third oil sample taken after the second oil sample;

correcting the input data set based on at least one of an amount of oil added to the engine and an amount of oil removed from the engine to generate a corrected input data set using a processing module connected to the input module, the correcting the input data set comprising;

comparing the first oil contaminant concentration, the second oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration;

removing the second oil contaminant concentration from the input data set when the second oil contaminant concentration is less than the first oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration is greater than the first oil contaminant concentration; and

correcting the second oil sample to correspond to a trend based on at least the first oil sample concentration when the second oil contaminant concentration is less than the first oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration is greater than the first oil contaminant concentration but less than the second oil contaminant concentration;

generating a graph of the corrected input data set versus time;

generating one of a trend warning and rate of change warning based on a predetermined set point stored in an output module; and

outputting the corrected input data set, the one of a trend warning and rate of change warning and the graph of the corrected input data set versus time via the output module.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising additionally correcting errors in the input data set using an input data correction module before the correcting the input data set based on the at least one of an amount of oil added to the engine and the amount of oil removed from the engine.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein

the first oil contaminant concentration, the second oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration comprise one of iron (Fe) concentration, lead (Pb) concentration, copper (Cu) concentration, tin (Sn) concentration, boron (B) concentration, nickel (Ni) concentration, aluminum (Al) concentration, silicon (Si) concentration, sodium (Na) concentration, chromium (Cr) concentration, calcium (Ca) concentration, silver (Ag) concentration, zinc (Zn) concentration, pentane insolubles concentration, fuel concentration, oil additive concentration, viscosity, flashpoint and pH, and

the first oil contaminant concentration, the second oil contaminant concentration and the third oil contaminant concentration are simultaneously inputted to the input module.