As an industry, large two-stroke marine diesels used in over 30,000 ships worldwide, waste in excess of US$2 billion in cylinder oil over lubrication every year.  In addition, over 1.25 million tonnes of unnecessary contaminated drain oil need to be disposed.

Over-lubrication of cylinder lubricating oil in slow speed two stroke marine diesel engines can cost ship managers and owners over US$100,000 per year per ship. The Flame Diagnostic service from Flame Marine helps you prevent this loss by reducing the cylinder lubricating oil feed rates in your ships to the lowest and safest levels; fully in compliance with manufacturers guidelines. We do this by carefully monitoring the performance characteristics of the engine and the precise chemical composition of the cylinder drain oil and analyzing this information using novel techniques proven by over 12 years of practical experience and currently used by nearly 500 ships worldwide.

Working together with your chief engineers, we implement a gradual and safe process of lubrication reduction and improving engine combustion. This is possible because we not only look at the performance characteristics of the engine with the data that you supply but also the chemistry of the combustion process itself using the oil samples that you also supply. The combination of these allows us to build a complex model of exactly what is happening within your engine and to advise you on the best ways to improve combustion and reduce cylinder oil feed rates.

A byproduct of this whole process is a reduction in the amount of waste cylinder drain oil that needs to be disposed and an increase in the reliability of your engines together with the opportunity to increase the period between overhauls.

The Flame Diagnostic service is the world leader in this technology and is used by the research departments of a number of the top names in the marine industry as well as nearly 500 ships worldwide.

To fully appreciate the impact on engines of cylinder oil over-lubrication when combined with slightly imperfect combustion, we only need look at the pictures in the right hand column. Over-lubrication by cylinder oil is one of the chief avoidable costs. It causes piston deposits which decrease the efficiency of the combustion process and increase engine wear as well as increasing the generation of NOx and particulates which cause air pollution. Flame Diagnostic will also detect early ring groove wear, blow by and skirt abrasion from minute traces of wear components in the cylinder drain oil.

The Flame Diagnostic service from Flame Marine not only saves you money by reducing cylinder oil feed rates to the lowest safe levels and scheduling maintenance when your engines need it but by regularly monitoring the engine, it helps detect potential problems long before they can be detected using conventional means by the engineering crews on the ship. Flame Diagnostic works for the crews and allows you to deliver the most cost effective service.