Atomic emission spectrometric analysis in the assessment of wearing of vehicle engines

Abstract

Internal combustion engines are exposed to very difficult exploitation conditions: heavy loads and high temperature. Oil is used to reduce friction and wear of the mechanism parts. Different physical and chemical characteristics of the oil play a crucial role during the performance because of the change of regime: the oil preventing from one type of wear may not be suitable to prevent another type of wear. One of the experimental ways to determine the influence of the oil on the wear processes is to estimate the amount of wear products, i.e. wear metals. Employing the inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer “Spectroflame ICP” one can carry out such used oil analysis. This equipment is not specifically modified to the oil analysis and this paper presents the method for engine oil sample preparation and its application for the “Spectroflame ICP”.