A series of anomalies and production failures were detected due to differences in the behavior of the lubricant from the same supplier and different batches.
After discarding various hypotheses, it was decided to check if the different ones had the same composition.The challenge was addressed by applying the chemical techniques that Infinitia has for the characterization of volatiles, such as gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, after liquid-liquid extraction with dichloromethane.
Once obtained the results of the concentrations of the volatiles released by the samples, chemometric calculations were performed to identify and quantify the volatiles released by the lubricants, verifying how indeed composition differences existed between the different batches.
- Assess whether the difference in lubricant behavior could be due to a different composition.
- Chemical characterization of the volatile organic compounds present in the samples.
- Check if the different batches of the same product had the same composition.
- Application of the liquid-liquid extraction technique for the sampling of the different batches.
- Analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry after the extraction of the volatiles.
- Chemometric calculations for the quantification of the results.