JPH05281188A - Method and device for reporting replacement of lubrication oil - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a method and device for reporting replacement of a lubrication oil which can make an in-line real-time report of usage limitation of actually used oil. CONSTITUTION:A pair of electrodes 1 which consist of an electrode 1a which is made of an inactive metal such as gold, silver, or platinum and an electrode 1b which is made of iridium, luthenium, rhodium, or their oxide is dipped into a lubrication oil 2, thus detecting a potential difference of the pair of electrodes 1. It is reported that the lubrication oil 2 reaches a usage limit if a potential difference E is reached a potential difference Ea which is equivalent to a total acid number which is a preset usage limit value of the lubrication oil 2 is reached when the potential difference E tends to decrease or if the potential difference E is reached a potential difference Eb which is equivalent to an strong acid number which is a preset usage limit value of the lubrication oil 2 when the above decrease tendency changes into increase.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lubricating oil replacement notification method and apparatus for in-line notification of the usage limit of lubricating oil in real time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is a well known fact that in a used lubricating oil, an increase in acid value is a measure of deterioration of the used oil. This acid value includes a total acid value and a strong acid value, both of which are detected based on JIS or ASTM test standards, and the deterioration degree of the oil used is estimated by this value. However, these require specialized knowledge and dedicated equipment, and therefore, the applicant of the present application has previously filed Japanese Patent Application No. 2-83151 and Japanese Patent Application No. 3-1.
No. 51108 proposes a lubricating oil deterioration degree detecting method and apparatus capable of detecting the deterioration degree of the used oil in-line in real time. The outline is as follows.

First, the applicant of the present invention, as shown by the characteristic P1 in FIG. 3, "with an electrode made of an inert metal such as gold, silver or platinum dipped in an oil used and iridium, ruthenium, rhodium or an oxide thereof. That the decrease rate of the potential difference between the electrode pair consisting of the electrode and the electrode corresponds to the increase rate of the total acid value of the oil used, and the total acid number can be known by detecting the potential difference between these electrodes. It has been proposed to estimate the degree of deterioration of the oil used (see Japanese Patent Application No. 2-83151).

Further, in the subsequent research, the applicant of the present invention showed that, as indicated by the characteristic P2 in the figure, "When a strong acid value appears in the oil used, the decreasing tendency of the potential difference due to the increase of the total acid value up to then tends to increase. It has been proposed to find out "falling" and to know the generation of a strong acid value by S at the time of this inversion, and thereby to estimate the degree of deterioration of the oil used (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-15110).
(See No. 8).

[0005]

By the way, when it is attempted to judge the actual usage limit of the oil used by using the above-mentioned two proposed technologies, both technologies are handled separately,
In addition, it lacks provision of display means and comparison / determination means, which makes it practically inconvenient.

The present invention focuses on the problems of the above-mentioned prior art, and organically combines the two proposed technologies, and can more practically inform the usage limit of the lubrication oil in-line in real time. It is an object to provide a method and an apparatus thereof.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the method for detecting the degree of deterioration of lubricating oil according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. An electrode pair 1 composed of an electrode 1a made of an active metal and an electrode 1b made of iridium, ruthenium, rhodium or an oxide thereof is immersed in a lubricating oil 2 and a potential difference E of the electrode pair 1 is detected. When the decreasing tendency is reached, the potential difference Ea corresponding to the total acid value, which is a predetermined use limit value of the lubricating oil 2, is reached, or when the decreasing tendency is changed to the increasing tendency, the potential difference Ea is determined in advance. When the potential difference Eb corresponding to the strong acid value, which is the usage limit value of the lubricating oil 2, is reached, it is decided that the lubricating oil 2 is at the usage limit.

In the above structure, as shown in FIG. 2, the change from the decreasing tendency to the increasing tendency of the potential difference E is performed by comparing the current potential difference E with the previous potential difference E _-1, and E < When E _-1 , E and Ea are compared and the other E
When> E _-1 , E and Eb are compared, and E≤Ea or E≥
When Eb, it is desirable to inform that the lubricating oil 2 is at the limit of use.

Next, the lubricating oil change notification device according to the present invention is a device made by using both the method inventions described above. Electrode 1a made of an inert metal such as gold, silver or platinum
And an electrode pair 1 including an electrode 1b made of iridium, ruthenium, rhodium or an oxide thereof, a microcomputer 4,
The microcomputer 4 includes a notification means 5 and stores in advance a potential difference Ea corresponding to the total acid value, which is the use limit value of the lubricating oil 2, and a potential difference Eb corresponding to the strong acid value, and the potential difference E from the electrode pair 1 is stored. Is input and stored, and compared with the previously input and stored potential difference E ₋₁ . When E <E ₋₁ , E and Ea are compared, and when E> E ₋₁ , E is compared. And Eb are compared,
When E ≦ Ea or E ≧ Eb, the informing means 5 is configured to output that the lubricating oil 2 is at the limit of use.

[0010]

In either of the method invention and the apparatus invention, the above-mentioned structure has a threshold value Ea corresponding to the total acid value indicating the usage limit of the lubricating oil and a threshold value corresponding to the strong acid value indicating the usage limit of the lubricating oil. It has both Eb and Eb.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the total acid value is detected, the potential difference E of the electrode pair 1 tends to decrease. During this period, the potential difference E is compared with the threshold value Ea, so that E ≦ Ea. For example, it can be notified that the lubricating oil is at the limit of use.

On the other hand, when a strong acid value is detected at the time of detecting the strong acid value, when the strong acid value appears at the time of detecting the total acid value, the decreasing tendency of the potential difference E of the electrode pair increases with the increase of the total acid value up to that point. It is an increasing tendency after the reversal S after turning to S, but thereafter, by comparing the potential difference E with the threshold Eb, E ≧ Eb (Eb is Eb1 or Es + in the figure).
If it is Eb2), it can be notified that the lubricating oil is at the limit of use.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of a lubricating oil replacement notification method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a lubricating oil change notification device. In the figure, reference numeral 1a is an electrode made of an inert metal such as gold, silver or platinum, reference numeral 1b is an electrode made of iridium, ruthenium, rhodium or an oxide thereof, and these electrode pairs 1 are inside the lubricating oil 2. Be immersed in. Reference numeral 1c indicates electrodes 1a and 1b
Is an amplifier circuit, and reference numeral 1d is a potential difference detection circuit for detecting the potential difference En of the electrode pair 1. Reference numeral 32 is
Since the potential difference En varies depending on the temperature of the lubricating oil 2 to become noise n, the noise removing circuit is for inputting the temperature of the lubricating oil from the temperature sensor 31 and removing the temperature noise n from the potential difference En.

The microcomputer 4, as shown in FIG. 2, has a potential difference Ea corresponding to the total acid value, which is the use limit value of the lubricating oil 2,
The potential difference Eb corresponding to the strong acid value is stored in advance, the potential difference E is input from the noise removing means 3 and sequentially stored, and the potential difference E _-1 that was previously input and stored is compared with E <When E ₋₁ , E and Ea are compared, and the other E>
When E ₋₁ , E and Eb are compared, and E ≦ Ea or E ≧ E
In the case of b, the buzzer 5 serving as an informing means warns that the lubricating oil 2 is at the limit of use.

Another embodiment will be described. Although the notification means 5 is a buzzer in the above embodiment, a warning light, an automatic stop device for the machine using the lubricating oil, or the like may be appropriately selected.

Further, the threshold value Eb may be an absolute amount Eb1 as shown in FIG. 3 or may be an addition value (Es + Eb2) of the potential difference Es at the time of reversal S and the relative amount Eb2. In the former case, since the absolute amount Eb1 is used as a comparison value in the strong acid value characteristic P2 after reversal, the total acid value characteristic P1
There is no danger of being used at times and confused with the threshold value Ea. In the latter case, the potential difference Es at the time of reversal S is always the value that was previously found, so this value is stored in advance, and when the subsequent input potential difference E becomes E ≧ Es + Eb2, it is notified as the use limit time of the lubricating oil. You can do it.

Further, the detection potential difference En and the noise removal potential difference E
Etc., such as averaging them or obtaining a median value after sampling several times, and thereafter, with these, a threshold value Ea,
You may compare with Eb.

Further, for example, when the lubricating oil temperature is a constant condition or when the detection accuracy may be rough, etc., the potential difference En itself of the electrode pair 1 is set to the threshold values Ea and Eb without considering noise removal.
It is also possible to compare with.

In the description of the claims and the above description, when the total acid value increases, the potential difference tends to decrease as the total acid value increases, while when a strong acid value appears, the total acid value increases up to that point. Although it has been described that the decreasing tendency of the potential difference turns into the increasing tendency, if the configuration for inverting the output of the potential difference is added in advance, the decreasing tendency and the increasing tendency are opposite. This is of course because the potential difference has been inverted in advance, and the gist of the present invention is exactly the same, and such a case is also included in the present invention.

To describe the effects of the above embodiments, since the judgment means based on the total acid value, the judgment means based on the strong acid value, and the notification means are appropriately combined, the use limit of the actually used oil is inline in real time. It becomes possible to inform the user, and it becomes practically easy to use.

[0021]

As described above, according to the lubricating oil replacement notification method and apparatus according to the present invention, the determination means based on the total acid number, the determination means based on the strong acid number, and the notification means are folded without any inconvenience. Because of the configuration, it becomes possible to inform the usage limit of the actual oil to be used in-line in real time, which is practically easy to use.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of a lubricating oil replacement notification device according to an embodiment of a third invention, and is also a partial explanatory diagram of a lubricating oil replacement notification method according to the first invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the second invention and the third invention.

FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating the relationship between the potential difference and the total acid value, which is the basis of the first invention to the third invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Electrode pair 1a Electrode 1b made of inert metal such as gold, silver or platinum 1b Electrode made of iridium, ruthenium, rhodium or its oxide 2 Lubricating oil 3 Noise removal means 4 Microcomputer 5 Notification means En potential difference n Noise E potential difference (this time Potential difference) E _-1 Previous potential difference Ea Potential difference corresponding to the total acid number, which is the limit value for use of lubricating oil Eb Potential difference corresponding to the strong acid number, which is the limit value for use of lubricating oil

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kunihiro Yamazaki 1200 Manda, Hiratsuka-shi, Kanagawa Komatsu Ltd. Research Laboratory

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An electrode pair 1 consisting of an electrode 1a made of an inert metal such as gold, silver or platinum and an electrode 1b made of iridium, ruthenium, rhodium or an oxide thereof is dipped in a lubricating oil 2 to form the electrode. The potential difference E of the pair 1 is detected and the potential difference E is detected.
However, when there is a decreasing tendency, when a potential difference Ea corresponding to the total acid value, which is a use limit value of the lubricating oil 2 which is predetermined, is reached, or when the decreasing tendency turns to an increasing tendency, it is predetermined. A method for informing replacement of lubricating oil, characterized in that when the potential difference Eb corresponding to a strong acid value which is a usage limit value of the lubricating oil 2 is reached, it is notified that the lubricating oil 2 is at a usage limit. 2. The lubricating oil replacement notification method according to claim 1, wherein the current potential difference E and the previous potential difference E ₋₁ are compared, and when E <E ₋₁ , E and Ea are compared, On the other hand, E> E
_{When -1} , E and Eb are compared, and E≤Ea or E≥Eb
At this time, the lubricating oil 2 is informed that it is at the limit of use, and the lubricating oil replacement informing method according to claim 1. E ≦
Ea or E ≧ Eb 3. An electrode pair 1 comprising an electrode 1a made of an inert metal such as gold, silver or platinum immersed in a lubricating oil 2 and an electrode 1b made of iridium, ruthenium, rhodium or an oxide thereof, The microcomputer 4 includes a microcomputer 4 and an informing means 5. The microcomputer 4 stores in advance a potential difference Ea corresponding to the total acid value, which is the use limit value of the lubricating oil 2, and a potential difference Eb corresponding to the strong acid value, and the electrode pair The potential difference E is input and stored from ₁ and is compared with the previously input and stored potential difference E ₋₁ . When E <E ₋₁ , E and Ea are compared, while E> E
_{When -1} , E and Eb are compared, and E≤Ea or E≥Eb
At this time, the lubricating oil replacement notifying device is characterized in that the notifying means 5 is caused to output that the lubricating oil 2 is at the limit of use.