Recycling MIL-H-46170 Hydraulic Fluid to Extend Fluid Service Life

摘要

This report documents the laboratory efforts in proving that used hydraulic fluidcould be recycled by removing contaminants and mixing with new fluid. Once the used fluid has been filtered to remove solid particulate contamination and de-humidified to bring the moisture content below 500 ppm water, it can be mixed with new fluid in a 75:25 ratio to bring the fluid mixture up to specification performance. The recycled used fluid by itself could not pass the foaming characteristic requirement thus requiring re-inhibition. Instead of adding more anti-foaming agent to the fluid, the decision was made to mix recycled fluid with new fluid to provide the re-inhibition effect. Mixing in new fluid results in an enhancement of all additive performance and eliminated any possible problems with adding too much or too little anti-foaming agent. These efforts set the standards for evaluating commercial recycling units that can recycle hydraulic fluid on a large scale and also establish doctrine for successfully extending the service life of used hydraulic fluid. jg.