Resources

Questions

Our engine designer requires drain oil analysis. Do Flame reports meet that?

Both do. Flame SDA and Flame Diagnostic samples are analysed in an accredited laboratory, which is what the designers' guidance calls for, and sampling intervals are agreed so they meet the requirement for your engine. Flame SDA reports the results on a cylinder-oil basis with a concise assessment of each unit; Flame Diagnostic goes further by reading them with the performance data.

What does "corrected for dilution" mean?

Scavenge drain oil is a mixture of used cylinder oil, system oil that has passed the stuffing box, fuel and water. Measured per kilogram of the mixture, iron reads low and BN reads low. Flame reports determine the system oil, fuel and water content of each sample with Flame ADT, Advanced Dilution Theory, and report every result on a cylinder-oil basis, so that units can be compared fairly. Dilution and Flame ADT.

What is the difference between Flame SDA and Flame Diagnostic?

Both use the same accredited laboratory and the same dilution correction. Flame SDA reports the scavenge drain oil from every cylinder and the system oil, with a concise assessment of each unit, and meets the engine designers' recommendation for laboratory analysis; a fuel purifier and service tank check, for catalytic fines and water before and after the purifiers and before the engine, can be added. Flame Diagnostic adds the engine performance data, reads the fuel samples against the drain oil and the performance data, and gives findings and recommendations for each unit: the fuel system, engine performance, and cylinder oil and condition in one report. A vessel can move from one to the other with its history intact.

Do you test samples on board?

No. Every sample is sent to the laboratory. The designers treat laboratory results as the reference, and the interpretation depends on a full laboratory analysis.

Lubricant suppliers offer drain oil analysis. Why use Flame Marine?

Most drain oil analysis is offered by lubricant suppliers as part of their service. Flame Marine supplies no lubricant, so its recommendations on feed rate and BN have no commercial interest in the quantity or grade of oil consumed. Its reports correct every result for dilution, read them with the engine's history and, in Flame Diagnostic, its performance data, and recommend what to do, including lowering the feed rate or changing BN where the evidence supports it.

I am a chief engineer. Is this a second opinion on my work?

No. It reports what the laboratory can see and the ship cannot: wear and residual BN on a cylinder-oil basis for each unit, trended against the vessel's history and read with the performance data. Flame Diagnostic was developed at sea, for the people who run the engines, and chief engineers use it to show which units need opening and which do not.

Could we do this analysis ourselves?

The laboratory work needs an accredited laboratory. The reading depends on the dilution correction and on comparison with the engine's own history and with other engines of the same type, which is the record Flame Marine has built from every engine sampled since 1998.

How do we get the most accurate results?

Record performance measurements accurately, and take all samples and readings at the same time and in the way the Sampling Instructions describe. Most errors come from readings recorded inaccurately, samples taken at a different time from the readings, or samples drawn the wrong way.