Letter 39087

Detection of oil/grease on aluminum surface [India] 

January 19, 2006

1)Suggest me some methods to detect and quantify very,very small amounts of oil/grease on aluminum tubes.

2)Suggest me some methods to detect and quantify the formations of Aluminum oxide on aluminum tubes.

Steve Karun Vijayan
mechanical engineering student - Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

If the tubes are small, bake it at 125F and weigh a pyrex dish or porcelain evaporation dish. Soak the tube with a suitable solvent. Evaporate the solvent, bake the dish again and weigh. This requires a very good analytical balance and does not discriminate between anything that comes off of the tube. To identify the oil or grease, it will take a good operator, a gas chromatograph and a great chromatographic library.

I guess a scanning electron microscope might work, but I would expect at least 50% variation in the results.

Now, tell us why you want to do this and the size of the parts.

James Watts
- FL

I want to answer or follow-up on this subject publicly (in non-commercial fashion).

 

My company is a supporting advertiser at finishing.com and we want the contact information to reach the inquirer privately.

 

I want to post a new question or inquiry of my own on a different subject.