Thursday, 15 January 2015

Oil Cooler Types and Considerations

Ever wonder why lubricants are used in machine parts to minimize or eradicate friction? The reason is that friction causes temperatures to soar up high tremendously. The rise in temperature causes devastation for machine parts and nothing but damages them. The machine parts are often made up of metal that changes state when temperature rises and also deteriorates due to frictional forces. Likewise, hydraulic systems and parts cannot stand heat. Oil that circulates or is in any way used in hydraulic systems needs to be cooled rapidly so that it does not damage the parts with excessive temperature.

The maintenance of oil temperature and keeping it under check gives constant viscosity and the oil does not thin or thick up due to varying temperatures. This is very beneficial in case of systems that are temperature optimized, having said that, those systems that work more effectively only if they are given oil at right temperature. Increased temperature of oil in this case can threaten to internally leak or to cause cavitations of the entire system. Harmful varnishing gets created in the oil and the life of both the oil and the mechanical system gets reduced manifolds. Cool oil circulating in a mechanical system ensures that parts run smoothly and the productivity of machines goes unharmed.

An air based oil cooler works in a very simple manner. It simply exposes the hot fluid to cool air and brings the temperature down. This all is done inside a heat exchanger that dissipates heat from the oil. Any water that may find its way to the oil or even moisture, this type of cooler eliminates the moist elements from it entirely making it free from water contamination. Since moisture is out, so are the chances of the internal parts to rust and corrode. However, they are lot noisier and heavier as compared with the alternative next to come. Their upfront cost is also higher. It takes air from the environment that obviously needs to be of low temperature at the time of its intake.

Water Based:

There exists a barrier between hot and cold fluids with the oil being the hot one and water being the cooler one. Heat is exchanged between the two because the metal used is a good conductor of heat. Comparing an air and a water based oil cooler of the same capacity, the upfront cost to bear is much less in case of water based one. Another advantage that this has over the air based cooler is that it is not dependent upon the temperature of the air outside. In case the air is hot, it further heats the oil up in case of the air oil chiller. The water in the process gets super heated that can be used for another purpose on site. A drawback however is, to constantly change water and replace it since heated water becomes useless for round two. Not just that, it needs clean water that is often expensive to get.


The size of the engine also decides the type of oil cooling solution that is needed. Heavier engines face a dilemma of not being able to make a water body big enough that serves the purpose where air alone does not succeed in substantially bringing down high temperatures inside the engines. This is a work that requires great expertise, only an expert engineer can decide and say what size of motor is needed and what type of oil cooler needs to be deployed. There is deduction techniques for this that require a certain degree of expertise related to the field. 

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