Used oil analysis module (PDF 367 KB)

Customer Data WinLIMSWinLIMSWinLIMS Technical Information BulletinTechnical Information BulletinTechnical Information Bulletin QSI CORPORATION Used Oil Analysis Module Managing the huge amount of data gener-ated in a used oil analysis laboratory is a challenge for any Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). The specially developed used oil analysis module from QSI recognises the special requirements of this application area. A typical laboratory may include more than 20 different parameters in its measurement programme, whose significance will depend on the equipment being monitored, its appli-cation and the lubricants used. Results there-fore need to be recorded for each customer, customer site, item of equipment on that site, and each sample taken from that equipment. The QSI module maintains a tiered historical record for each piece of equipment and can monitor its condition against its own unique set of specifications. Totally flexible specifica-tion handling means that the system can accommodate different rules for different customers, changes in plant operations and other variables. Reports can be generated to show current and historical data in tabular or graphical form, highlighting any out-of-spec results together with engineers’ comments and any recommendations for maintenance action. In addition to the engineer’s free text comments, predefined comments can be added to the report automatically when a parameter is outside specification limits, sig-nificantly speeding up sample processing. Because this module is fully integrated with QSI’s state-of-the-art WinLIMS, one LIMS can provide data management for blending and refinery operations as well as for used oil analysis. This module is suitable for all types of cus-tomer sample analysis from high volume fleet lubricant analysis through to low volume analysis of industrial process oils where flexi-bility in the testing regime is paramount. Whether the used oil laboratory is servicing internal or external customers, it is still es-sential to manage the customer data within the LIMS . The used oil module has a flexible data struc-ture that will cater for the diverse levels of customer data. Typically many used oil labo-ratories will use only three hierarchical levels, customer details, individual site details for the given customer, and details of the equipment being monitored at each company site. However where the structure is more com-plex, such as the marine sector, additional levels can be utilised down to compartment and sampling point locations. In such a sce-nario the ship would represent the equip-ment, a component the port engine, compart-ment the rear sump and sampling point being after the oil filter. The benefits of this flexible hierarchical ap-proach is faster more efficient login of used oil samples, easier data retrieval, and simpli-fied structured reporting. The customer data held in this structure is fundamental to the operation of the used oil module and enables the ability to automatic ally create specifications when recording new equipment records if required. Used Oil Specifications and Auto Commenting The process of defining the used oil specifications for the equipment being tested can be extremely time consuming due to the number of variables that can used to define the specification. The variables used are as follows. Grade of oil used within the equipment. The application of the equipment. The equipment itself and the systems builder model recommendations. Customer specified requirements. The WinLIMS used oil module caters for all these variables and will automatically create the specification based on the variables selected when entering a new equipment record. There is an order of precedence which defines the limits for each test performed. Application defines tests to be performed. Lubricant defines the limits for each test. System builder equipment model recommendations overrides lubricant limits. Customer defined limits override both lubricant and system builder. Multiple sets of limits can be applied to each test result. Some used oil laboratories also use variable limits based on the service hours or mileage for the equipment being tested, this capability exists within the used oil module. To use vari-able limits a high and low threshold values for the service hour / mileage is defined and a single or multiple set of vari-able limits. WinLIMS will then calculate the limits based on the equipments service hours/mileage at the time of testing. Variable limits are extremely useful for the monitoring of wear metals . Once the specification has been created comments can be associated with each set of limits, these comments are then associated with the result, if the result is outside of the limits. Hence with careful analysis of historical data and in conjunc-tion with the experience of the lubricant engineers, the com-ments can be defined automatically to reflect what the results indicate. These comments are stored as records within a comments table, so that they can be associated with many results with-out duplication and can also be selected for inclusion within reports manually at the review stage. The comments are also grouped by type as follows. Free comments. General comments. Customer actions. Possible causes. Recommendations. Laboratory remarks. The benefit of automatic commenting is that the final recom-mendations report produced by the en-gineer is largely be-ing contributed to automatically by the WinLIMS used oil module. Multiple languages are supported by WinLIMS, hence comments can be held in a selection of languages. Used oil samples that are submitted by customers are often short of key information required by the laboratory to be able to either identify or process the sample. Hence any capabili-ties to overcome these problems are a great asset to the laboratory. Remote login of samples by the customers is available by use of the WinLIMS Web Client technology. This technology allows customers to log samples directly into WinLIMS used oil module database tables via a secure web application. To achieve this the customer only has to have a PC with a con-nection to the world-wide web though Microsoft Internet Ex-plorer. This web application form can ensure the completion of mandatory fields and also utilise barcode identification so that samples arriving in the laboratory can be rapidly and accurately identified. Clearly there are real benefits to the remote login, such as enforcement of required data, prior warning of sample work-loads, and clearly identified samples. However if corporate policy will not allow this remote access, the normal forms used oil login program will also create some efficiencies. Faster input due to the structured customer data providing a tiered hierarchy which, for example if the user selects the customer, then the sites for that customer would be dis-played for selection and so forth down the tier. If the user knows the equipment access can be direct without using the data tiers. Field validation can be applied to the fields in the form, so that data not supplied but required to be able to process the sample can if required stop progress of the sample. For ex-ample if the customer requires variable limits, but does not supply the current service hours / miles, clearly then report-ing the results against the variable limits is not possible. As with the remote login sample labels or barcode labels can be printed at the time of registration into the laboratory. Used Oil Sample Login A key feature for lubricant engineers is the ability to review both the current sample and the previous sample history in detail. So that accurate and timely advice can be made to the customer when required. The review program allows the engineer to select the appro-priate equipment under review and upon doing so all of the relevant information will be displayed. The current sample with all its header information, results, and any automatic comments are populated into the form. If the engineer wishes to review the historical samples, by just clicking on a push button all the samples for the equipment will be dis-played in a cross view form. Once the current sample and historical samples have been reviewed the engineer can then add additional comments to the current sample. These comments can be selected from predefined comments or free typed, if free typed the engi-neer will be prompted as to whether to save the free typed comment within the comments table for future re-use. The comments would be associated with the appropriate heading sections that would appear in the final report to the customer. These are customer actions, recommendations, possible causes, general comments, and multiple comments that may be added to each section. A report status can be assigned by the engineer or automati-cally assigned by WinLIMS based on the status of the results being in or a out of specification. The engineer can override any automatically assigned status if so required. Once the engineer has finished with the review process, the current sample can then have a final status applied to show it has been reviewed and by who and when. The final outcome of the used oil testing per-formed by the laboratories is the final report that is provided to the customer. Individual customers and different market sectors will require reports in varying formats, hence reporting needs to be flexi-ble. The WinLIMS underlying data structure makes the creation of these reports, like the one opposite very easy. The reporting tool that QSI supports is Crystal Decision’s Crystal Reports, however due to the WinLIMS open architecture other third party reporting tools can be used, such as Business Objects. The two type of reports commonly used are spot, where only the current sample is reported, and trend where the current and the X previous sam-ples are reported. A detailed trend report beside reporting the samples would also include the as-sociated engineers comments and graphical sta-tistic charts. Reports can be exported into many different for-mats such as Word, Excel, CSV, HTML, etc. and hence can be included into engineers adhoc docu-ments when warranted. The used oil module allows for the automatic emailing of reports to selected individuals or distri-bution groups for each customer. Within many of our client used oil laboratories final routine reports are virtually automatic , hence al-lowing engineers to focus their expertise onto the more interesting problem samples and in turn im-proving turn round times. Used Oil Equipment Review Reporting North & South America QSI Corporation 445 Godwin Ave. Midland Park, NJ 07432 +01 201-251-2101 Central & Eastern Europe QSI GmbH Robert Bosch Str. 5 63225 Langen Deutschland +49 6103 9007 0 Western Europe QSI (UK) Ltd. The Lodge, Station Road Chinnor, Oxfordshire OX39 4HA United Kingdom +44 1844 351212 Australia & Asia QSI Pty Suite 6, Sterling House 1012, Doncaster Road Doncaster, Victoria 3108 +61 03 9841 5511 European Technical Center QSI BV Gewandeweg 5 6161 DJ GELEEN The Netherlands +31 46 750 11 67 Quality Systems International is a leader in the supply of innovative LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) soft-ware and associated consulting services, which together provide enterprise solutions for all laboratories. QSI believes that the success of our LIMS projects is largely due to the fact that we use no third party consultants or distribu-tors and, as such, all divisions are wholly owned subsidiaries of the QSI Corporation. Corporate headquarters are in the USA, whilst the subsidiaries are located in the UK, Germany, Holland, and Australia. Our goal is to expand our operations further around the world so that we can provide greater local support and enhanced communications to our clients. QSI believes that the use of the modern technologies available both today and in the future will revolutionise working practices within the laboratory, and unchain technicians from their clipboard and desktop PC’s. We envisage intelligent LIMS software continuing to help the integration of technology into the laboratory. Our commitment to continued innovation is reflected in our ongoing investment in research and development. In fact we have since 1993 allocated all profits to research and development. This commitment has continued and enhanced the develop-ment of our forms technology, and introduced web and portable technologies to the laboratory community in the form of the Web Client, Pocket Client and Tablet PC Client. Through our research team we are continually exploring and assessing new technologies thereby advancing the capabilities of WinLIMS on all platforms. QSI measures success not only by the number of systems sold, but also by the expansion of computing technologies within our client sites and the freedom of growth and invention that this brings. www.qsiuk.com WinLIMS Many of the routine analysis / tests performed within the used oil laboratory utilise laboratory instruments that can be easily interfaced with WinLIMS, These include viscometers, ICP, titrators, gas chromatographs, IR, etc. The QSI Inter-Link Instrument Interfacing Module is a one-off solution to instrument interfacing, unique in that it is fully user-configurable, and designed and supported by the LIMS supplier. Because QSI Inter-Link is an integral part of the WinLIMS installation, bi-directional communication between WinLIMS and instrument is much more easily achieved. This means that sample data queues can be set up in WinLIMS and transferred, in the right format, to the PC that is control-ling the instrument, avoiding the lengthy setting up of individ-ual sample queues for each instrument. This can dramati-cally improve efficiency – for one QSI client it reduced the time to process a sample from 7 hours to 35 minutes One PC can interface to several instruments, saving on hardware costs. Interfaces are configurable by the user, and fully sup-ported by QSI, so flexibility and expandability are readily available as instruments are replaced and procedures change. This QSI approach to instrument interfacing provides major benefits to our clients. Low cost single site licence. No expensive consultancy costs. Interface knowledgebase retained by client and QSI. Greater flexibility. Increased efficiency. Future proofing. Instrument Interfacing. QSI Corporation