According to specialists from Global Heat Transfer, Staffordshire, United Kingdom, manufacturers should be aware of the risks involved by ignoring thermal fluid degradation and by sampling oils incorrectly, without the input of specialists.

If oil samples are not collected while the fluid is hot and circulating, artificially high flashpoint values will be returned. As a result, an unsafe situation could be presented as a safe one. This can lead to plant managers underestimating safety risks and not conducting appropriate maintenance. Decreased energy efficiency, unmanageable flashpoints and increased risks of explosions are a few of the dangers resulting from erroneous sampling and testing.

According to Global Heat Transfer, testing of thermal fluids should always be conducted using hot sampling techniques and samples should be submitted to an independent laboratory. Only by doing this can manufacturers ever have sufficient assurance that the state of their thermal fluids has been correctly diagnosed and can be accurately treated.

For more information, visit www.globalheattransfer.co.uk.