Alkaline cylinder lubricants were introduced into two-stroke crosshead marine diesel engines in the 1950's, and Cylinder Lubricant Drain Oil (CDO) analysis has been used as a method for evaluation of cylinder lubricants since as far back as the 1960s. It had been a useful second stage in the testing of new cylinder lubricant formulations following initial testing in laboratory engines, and once a prototype formulation had been developed, the new lubricant would be applied to, say, two cylinders of a five cylinder engine ship at sea (going back to the ubiquitous Sulzer 5RND68). Drain samples would then be taken from one of the cylinders on the existing formulation, and from one cylinder using the new oil, and the CDO drains analysed and evaluated. Over the past six years Flame Marine pioneered the metamorphosis of CDO analysis from a method for evaluation of cylinder lubricants, used only by the oil companies and engine builders on a handful of ships, to a low cost method for monitoring engine performance available to all two-stroke diesel engine ships.
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