Centrifugal Oil Filter

Centrifuge rotors

Some of the soot particles formed as a by-product of combustion get past the piston rings and penetrate into the crankcase, where they are absorbed into the lubricating oil. Modern lubricating oils contain additives which retain the soot particles in suspension, thus preventing sludge formation in the engine. However, as the concentration of soot increases, the oil becomes more viscous, which reduces its lubricating capacity. Furthermore, the soot particles essentially consist of carbon – they are therefore very hard and accelerate wear considerably. As a result, to minimise engine wear, the concentration of soot particles in the lubricating oil must be kept as low as possible.

Full-flow filtration cannot be carried out, due on the one hand to the risk of blocking of the filter, and on the other hand due to the impractical effort of filtering out the small soot particles (1 µm). The solution lies in the bypass filtration process, in which a portion of the lubricating oil is filtered separately to a high standard. One of the most effective processes in bypass filtration is to clean the oil through centrifuging.

How centrifuges operate ?

Centrifuge rotation is achieved by taking approximately 10 percent of the oil supplied by the oil pump and then forcing it through two tangentially opposed nozzles. Depending on the temperature and viscosity of the oil centrifuge, speeds of more than 10,000 r.p.m. can be achieved. Dirt and soot particles within the oil as well as wear metal particles which are more dense than the oil, are pressed to the outer wall of the centrifuge through centrifugal force. Here they are compacted into a layer – building up a deposit at the wall.
It is therefore not the size of the dirt particles which is crucial, but only the difference in density of the particles to the oil.

Centrifuge rotors reliably purify oils from smallest solid particles such as dust, abraded metal, soot particles etc.