Mobile Testing Solution for the Petroleum Industry

Agilent and Grabner Instruments have reached an equipment manufacturing agreement to focus on a novel mobile testing solution for in-field analysis of lubricating oils and greases.

Stanta Clara/USA — Grabner Instruments, based in Austria, is known for developing and manufacturing automatic petroleum testing equipment. In this partnership, the company will focus on lube and grease analysis, an area that requires specific and specialized expertise in method development.

According to Werner Müller-Veith, managing director of Grabner, the combination of Agilent’s mobile FTIR technology with Grabner’s test methods and global channel reach, would allow the partners to offer rugged go-anywhere solutions that delivered the highest analytical accuracy while being simple to use.

Based on Agilent’s robust handheld FTIR systems, Grabner has developed Miniscan IR Log, a versatile FTIR analyzer for monitoring the condition of lubricating oils and greases at petroleum refineries. The analyzer is capable of quickly and accurately measuring the levels of water in oil — without using hazardous reagents, the company announced. The Dialpath sampling technology makes it possible to analyze viscous liquids (such as thick greases and lubes), with the added ability to carry out in-field testing of lubes and greases.