Mineral oil residues on HVAC components: measuring methods

A method to determine the amount of oil residues on heating-, ventilating- and air-conditioning(HVAC)-component surfaces was developed and validated. The sampling was based on two swiping methods and a filter contact method. Infrared spectrometry was utilised in the analyses. For the tested mineral oil the filter contact method showed the best recovery of the sampling 91±2%. The oil concentration is quite high but unequally distributed (530–960 mg/m2) on the surface of the sheet metal treated with corrosion protection oil and low on the sheets treated with chromic acid (<2–29 mg/m2). Oil concentration of studied HVAC components (14–196 mg/m2) was dependent on the technique used for manufacturing the component.