Hydraulic fluid cleanliness is critical to optimal hydraulic system performance and should be monitored regularly with oil analysis to maintain system health and reliability at a minimal cost.
Particle counting is essential to determining the cleanliness level of hydraulic fluids and provides the clearest indication of solid particle contaminants. Particle count results are assigned three ISO 11171 code numbers based on the total number of particles equal to or greater than a given size range. The rate at which particle counts increase indicates the severity of the problem causing the wear or contamination. An increasing number of large particles suggests a more urgent problem.