FILTERMAG--any comments?

[TxDoc]

http://www.filtermag.com/

 

From their website:

 

Patented FilterMag™ Technology Removes Steel Particles As Small As 2-Micron From Engine Oil

SAE Studies Show 70% Wear Reduction When Particles

15-Micron and Larger Removed—Huge Advance Anticipated at 2-Micron Level

In the last decade a revolution was quietly taking place in the field of Tribology. Tribology is the science and technology concerned with interacting surfaces in relative motion, including friction, lubrication, wear and erosion. Driven by the intense competitive pressures of the market on all industries, Tribologists have focused their collective intellects on discovering the root causes of engine and machine failures and to developing systems and approaches to managing, in the most cost effective manner, the maintenance of these mechanical devices to maximize operational time versus down time. At stake is nothing less than the profitability and survival of whole industries and businesses in the evolving global economy. While our concern here is your automobile’s engine, we trust, it is nevertheless just as important to you. What they have discovered, is that while, “particles, moisture, soot, heat, air, glycol, fuel, detergents, and process fluids are all contaminants commonly found in industrial lubricants and hydraulic fluids…it’s particle contamination that is widely recognized as the most destructive to the oil and machine. This explains why the particle counter [has become] the most widely used instrument in oil analysis today”, stated Practicing Oil Analysis in their Sept/Oct 1998 issue.

 

Wear Chain Concept

The destructive mechanism set in motion by particle contamination is known as the “Wear Chain.” The wear chain begins with particles of steel, too small to see and even though most metal to metal contact in an engine is prevented by the lubrication system, there is still some contact at the molecular/microscopic level. Metal to metal contact at this extremely delicate level is the mechanism by which small particles of steel are torn and gouged from the metal surfaces and introduced into the engine’s oil and lubricating system. (See Figure 1)

According to James C. Fitch, P.E., in diesel engines, high local stresses associated with sliding contact wear result in abrasive removal of material surfaces. When loads are concentrated on the effective area of a small particle, the resulting surface stresses can be greater than 500,000 psi, far beyond the elastic limit of substrate materials. Oil film thicknesses, between which particles can reach and attack surfaces, are typically in the 10-micron range. This explains why, according to a wear study by Cummins Engine, particles smaller than 10-microns generated 3.5 times more wear (rods, rings and main bearings) than particle greater than 10 microns.

 

 

 

The conditions are very similar in a typical automotive engine. The lubrication system of an automobile’s engine is designed to provide a film of oil, as stated above, mere thousandths of an inch thick on which the engine’s moving metal components glide in much the same way that a water skier glides over the water. Some areas of the engine, such as the main bearings, rod bearings and valvetrain use part of the engine’s power to pump oil to these areas to provide a thicker film and therefore more protection. The main bearings and rod bearings are even designed to capture a pool of oil, that, under the pressure supplied by the oil pump, prevents the bearing surfaces from coming into contact, resisting even the high force levels of maximum engine output. However some areas, such as the timing chain, the cylinder walls and the piston rings rely on oil splashing from the sump to provide lubrication.

The areas relying on a splashing oil bath are most prone to generating microscopic particles of steel that are carried throughout the engine by the lubricating system. The oil film is extremely thin at these metal-to-metal interfaces allowing the microscopic-sized particles to gouge and act as an abrasive, removing material from these surfaces. The process produces small, 2- to 5-micron hardened steel particles that cause the most wear damage to an engine.

The reason these small (2 to 5 micron) steel particles cause so much damage is twofold. First, and most important, they are able to flow into all areas of the engine, including the timing chain, valvetrain, main and rod bearing and in the ring to cylinder wall space. Second, they generate additional particles to produce proportionally more engine wear.

Oil, contaminated with these super-fine particles of steel, is abrasive. The sharp, hardened steel particles flow rapidly over the soft bearing surfaces, gouging and cutting into them along the way. These pieces of soft metal are captured by conventional filter elements, but the bearing material doesn’t do its job if it’s trapped in the filter canister instead of remaining on the bearing surface.

The soft bearing surfaces are the most vulnerable to this aspect of the wear chain. Maintaining proper clearances is vital to proper engine performance especially in such critical areas as the main, rod and cam bearings. This is the process that has been confirmed by important field and lab studies, that have concluded that oil contamination is the primary cause of engine wear and is the beginning of what is known as the chain reaction to failure, says Fitch. A fact confirmed by an SAE study on both diesel and automotive engines that found that “compared to a 40-micron filter, engine wear was reduced by 50% with 30 micron filtration. Likewise wear was reduced by 70%with 15 micron filtration.”

 

 

Canister Style Filters Do Not Remove The Most Abrasive And Damaging Lube Contaminate – Microscopic Steel Particles

According to the Vicker division of Trinova/Aeroquip, “abrasive wear accounts for about 90% of failures due to contamination.” As we discussed above, such abrasive wear comes about from microscopic steel particles that common automotive paper filter elements do not remove. These filters therefore do not control the wear chain. It’s interesting to note that Fitch states that the rate at which contamination enters the hydraulic and lubricating fluids of machinery is greatly under estimated, while the effectiveness of filters at removing these contaminates is greatly over estimated. He goes on to note that tests by machinery manufacturers show that filters have great difficulty achieving this task in the field, where they are subjected to conditions of frequent and large changes in temperature, fluid viscosity, pressure, and flow surges, plus the effect of shock, vibration, and fatigue. Other common problems are filter bypass valves that get stuck open, damaged or are missing filter gaskets, and filters that are improperly installed.

In addition to the above listed obstacles that prevent a typical paper element filter from doing its job, steel particles pose a technical obstacle of their own. The very method by which they are formed produces a sharp-edged knife-like shape. So once the microscopic particles have circulated long enough to do considerable damage, they begin to produce work hardened knife-edge particles that are larger than the pores of the filter element. They are stopped only briefly by the element before the oil pressure forces the sharp edged particles to cut through and recontaminate the lube system.

 

 

FilterMag™ Restricts the Wear Chain

By using patented technology to generate and focus a powerful magnetic field to capture steel particles as small as two-micron, FilterMag™ significantly diminishes effects of the wear chain by controlling the size of particle circulating in the oil. By controlling and limiting microscopic particle proliferation, abrasive wear is kept to virtually immeasurable levels, a condition that substantially improves engine life, efficiency and performance.

 

FilterMag™ Is Effective at Removing Microscopic Steel Particles That Pass Through Conventional Filters

To demonstrate FilterMag’s effectiveness, Westech Performance Group in Mira Loma, California was contracted to perform a series of independent tests. This respected test lab is used extensively by the high performance automotive press and true to form used a fresh 400 Pontiac high performance V8 built by Rock’n’Roll Engineering of Riverside, California.

Westech performed two tests. The first was a double filter test. (See Figure 2) This test pitted FilterMag™ against two conventional filters, plumbed in series, on the initial break in of the engine. The FilterMag™ unit was placed on the second filter, so that all engine oil would be filtered before it was exposed to the FilterMag.™ After only 15 minutes of low engine-speed operation (the engine never revved more than 2,500 rpm, nor developing more that 13 horsepower) significant amounts of steel particles, as small as two-microns were collected in the

575-lb magnetic force field, focused on the interior wall of the filter canister.

In the second test, the dual oil filter test rig was removed allowing oil to flow through the stock oil filter arrangement. In this phase of the test the carburetor and timing were adjusted and several full power dyno pulls were performed for approximately 3-hours of engine operation. After the test session, the oil filter canister was cut open for inspection. The result was a serious accumulation of steel particles in the magnetic force field of FilterMag.™

 

 

These tests show clearly that FilterMag™ removes steel particles that conventional paper element filters miss.

(See Figure 3) This was demonstrated in the first test as the particles captured by FilterMag™ passed through the paper filter before being caught. The second test demonstrated that FilterMag™ has the magnetic energy required to retain particles against the flow rate of oil encountered in the filter canister at under all normal engine operating conditions.

This is a critical feature of FilterMag™ since other products do not have the force to retain captured particles against the oil flow. If the magnetic force of the device is not sufficient to retain the particles against the oil flow, then those particles are reintroduced into the lubrication system while the engine is running.

 

How FilterMag™ Works

In order for FilterMag™ to remove minute steel particles from the oil system, its magnets must have enough energy to hold these incredibly fine particles in the oil flow. That takes an enormous amount of magnetic energy and is only possible with FilterMag’s patented design.

 

 

 

Other magnetic products on the market, such as magnetic drain plugs, a unit that attaches to the bottom of the oil filter canister and several other types, do not have the force needed to hold particle in oil flow, any debris captured by these products collect after the engine stops. When the engine is re-started, these particles break loose, circulate in the engine causing the damage described above in the wear chain section.

FilterMag™ employs a focused magnetic force field that amplifies its incredibly powerful neodymium magnets, to generate the force needed to hold particles as small as 2-micron against oil flowing in the system. This technology was developed after testing showed the magnetic force of the magnets alone were not enough to hold 2-micron steel particles against the pressure of the oil flow. To retain increasingly smaller particles, requires a geometric increase in magnetic force.

FilterMag’s patented technology uses a magnetic flux amplifier to redirect the magnetic energy that is normally present on the far side of the magnet, toward the inside of the filter canister. The flux amplifier has to be of an exact thickness to produce the strongest magnetic field possible. Further, it has to be designed to allow FilterMag™ to adjust its circumference in order to compensate for manufacturing variances and provide the precise fit and alignment of the magnets to the filter canister required to focus the maximum magnetic energy within the oil flow. If any of these dimensions are not exact, the strength of the magnetic field is greatly reduced and therefore the units filtering effectiveness.

 

 

FilterMag is put to the test by the granddaddy of all off-road races!

 

The Baja 1000, Ensenada, Mexico was the sight of the most grueling test to date for the FilterMag. Dyno and bench testing were only starting points for the FilterMag. Real world testing began with what is referred to as the “Grandaddy of all desert races.” The Baja 1000 covered 677 miles of the most grueling terrain offered up in off-road racing. “It was rocky, rugged, silty, twisty and technically-challenging.” Of the 226 entries, barely 100 finished. In a race where a 40% finish rate is satisfactory, 100% of FilterMag’s entries crossed the finish line-a true testament to FilterMag’s race proven technology.

 

 

Jeff Quinn, was the overall fourth place finisher. Jeff’s Class 1 car was in a heated battle as he fought off not only the most trying course in Baja’s 34 year history, but a tight battle for second, third and fourth. As the owner of McKenzie’s Performance Products and an off-road racing veteran of nearly twenty years, Jeff has seen everything when it comes to racing, or so he thought. “I was not prepared to see the amount of particles that Filtermag trapped in my oil filter,” said Jeff. (Pictured on the right.)   “I used a top-of-the-line race filter, and to see the amount of stuff that made it through (the oil filter) that I did...blows my mind.” Jeff has sworn he won’t race another race without the FilterMag. “It’s peace of mind, “he said, “It could make a huge difference, especially in off-road where oil filtration is a key component to finishing the race.”

 

 

Jeff Lothringer, the eight place finisher, couldn’t believe his eyes either. “If you would have shown me a few particles I would have been happy.” Jeff’s particle count was in the millions. A fact that is unmistakable by the photos taken at McKenzies where all the oil filter were cut open. “Having FilterMag on my 10 car definitely made a difference,” said Jeff. Lothringer is also a proven off-road veteran. Part of the Lothringer family, Jeff has been around racing his whole life. “Every once in a while something comes along that changes the face of racing, this just might be it! I can’t imagine racing without one from now on.”

 

Steve Roberts, of Bullhead City, also competed with a FilterMag. His strong finish, 20:10:05,

was a testament to FilterMag’s abilities. The size of the particles in Steve’s filter far surpassed theothers, the FilterMag captured particles 3/8 of an inch in length and 1/4 inch wide. (Pictured on the left.) “I can’t believe my car even finished,” he said. “The larger particles, if left to circulate into his engine would have eventually caused engine failure. No way I would have finished without the FilterMag.”

 

FilterMag’s Baja proven technology is a hit with everyone who used it in the Baja 1000 this year. The units were slapped on and took the wildest ride in off-road racing. No other magnetic filtration device can stand up to this much punishment and still function. FilterMag...magnetic filtration systems second to none!