VISCOpro 2000 Reduces Lubricant Blending Time

All lubrication oils are graded and sold based on their viscosity characteristics. Therefore, highly precise viscosity measurements are required for lubricant production. Lubricant blenders can increase production by reducing the time it takes to formulate the products in the blending tank. Blenders require that the tanks are fully mixed together so that they are homogenous throughout before they take final samples to the lab. However, different materials require different times to blend and operators do not always know when the material is fully mixed.

To prove that the material is fully mixed, they usually take samples from different levels in the tank to test. This can cause downtime waiting for lab samples when the tank was already blended. In addition, if the lab tests come back and the tank isn’t fully blended, the blenders must wait and take more samples for testing. By utilising real-time in-tank viscosity measurements at different levels within the tank, lubricant manufacturers are able to know exactly when a tank is fully blended and ready to transfer.

At the invitation of a refinery customer, PAC performed a trial to help the process engineers determine how quickly the fluid in the tank became homogenous during the blending process. PAC installed two VISCOpro 2000 analysers and 321 model viscosity sensors on a single three-meter stem and inserted the stem into a lubricant blending tank from the top.

The results of the test showed that blending was complete significantly earlier than expected, which allowed them to perform final quality control procedures and transfer the product up to 30 minutes earlier. Additionally, they found that there was little stratification and that both the upper and lower viscometers showed that the fluid reached the target viscosity within one minute of each other.

By utilising real-time viscosity measurements, refineries are able to reduce the manufacturing time, which led to increased output capacity, reduced demand on the lab, and improved QA traceability.

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