Application of tribodiagnostics in the maintenance of vehicles

Abstract

Tribotechnical diagnostics use lubricants as media that help obtain information about processes and changes in the systems that they lubricate. If tribodiagnostics are applied properly and thoroughly, they result in significant savings in many areas; for example, they contribute to an increase of the lifetime of vehicles as well as other machines and devices, to a decrease of consumption of energy, to limiting the idle time due to failures and subsequent repairs, to a decrease of investment as well as operational costs (especially the machine maintenance and repair costs), to an increase of the safety of operation and to a reduction of negative influences of transport on the environment. They are based on monitoring the course of progressive wear of lubricants as well as mechanical parts. The paper deals with possibilities of using modern instrumental methods in particular: infrared spectrometry with Fourier transformation, analytical ferrography with consequential image analysis, scanning electron microscopy, local electron microanalysis and voltametry in the area of vehicle lubricant analysis. The first part of the paper presents the results of a study of the course of wear of engine, gear and hydraulic oils and plastic lubricants used for lubricating the vehicle parts. The second part of the paper deals with the abrasion particles isolated from oil filters in different types of vehicles. The evaluation of their number, size, shape, colour, surface characteristics and other morphological attributes helps obtain information about the part they come from and about the mechanism of their creation. This knowledge can thereafter contribute (especially in connection to the knowledge of the chemical structure of the particles) to an elimination of the hazard of a damage or a breakdown of the machine. The combination of the methods presented above helps monitor the evaluation of the course of processes related to the wear of particles of vehicles as well as steady mechanisms and obtain its complex evaluation.