News

  • Ferrography Slides now in stock

    3rd January 2025

    We are now able to supply Ferrography Slides compatible with the Parker Kittiwake Analex RPD FG-K19026-KW and equivalent to item number AS-K27150-KW – ANALEXrpd R360 Substrate slides. Please get in touch with required quantities for a quote.Read More.

  • Tribute to Mervin Jones

    23rd December 2024

    It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Mervin H. Jones, the founder of Swansea Tribology Services. Mervin has left an indelible contribution to the field of Tribology and Oil Analysis through his research at Swansea University, the many Tribology conferences he hosted in Swansea, his books and publications, his work withRead More.

  • STS 2024 Holiday Season Opening Times

    5th December 2024

    Read More.

  • New ICP now online

    13th December 2023

    Conversion of Aqueous ICP methodology to that with Internal Standard (IS). We are introducing an improvement into the aqueous ICP analysis by adding an Internal Standard to the test method. An Internal Standard is an additional element, that is not expected to be found in the substance being measured, which is introduced into the dilutionRead More.

  • Bearings don’t just die, they are murdered

    22nd July 2022

    I just came across this incredible phrase while looking for some graphs to demonstrate… exactly that. It sounds dramatic, but it’s anything but. An estimated bearing working life is an ideal that is unlikely to be reached in practice. Read this excellent article from Machinery Lubrication for more details, then come back and send overRead More.

  • Achilles Silver Plus Validation Completed

    19th March 2021

    We are pleased to confirm that STS’s validation with Achilles UVDB has been completed as part of our continued efforts to review and improve our systems. Our thanks to all the colleagues who have contributed to this process. You can view the certificate here.Read More.

  • Successful renewal of ISO 9001:2015 certification

    8th February 2021

    Congratulations to all at STS for successfully passing the ISO 9001:2015 recertification audit. We are proud of all our staff members who made sure that we passed. The work doesn’t stop here, but this is a very positive milestone.Read More.

  • Fuel Analysis section added to brochure

    29th January 2021

    A section on Fuel Analysis has been added to our brochure. You can find it here.Read More.

  • A twin case study

    27th August 2020

    We work with a number of customers who have similar assets across several sites. This can be of help when considering the likely cause of a problem, but recently we had a reminder that all our samples are individuals and the analysis process should be followed independently and without preconceptions. On the surface the problemsRead More.

  • Covid-19 Response

    27th March 2020

    STS and OAS continue to support essential industries during this difficult time. We have taken a number of measures to ensure well being of our staff, reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 in line with government guidelines and continue to provide an uninterrupted service. We have compartmentalised our workforce to reduce risk of exposure andRead More.

  • Formula Student 2019

    9th September 2019

    This July Swansea University Race Engineering competed in the Formula Student UK event at Silverstone Circuit. The team successfully competed in all of the static and dynamic events. In a field of over a hundred teams they finished 4th is Business Plan Presentation, 7th in Acceleration event and 28th overall. The team at Swansea TribologyRead More.

  • New Azlon Neck Vampire Sampling Pump Stocked

    5th February 2019

    New 22mm “Azlon” neck vampire sampling pump now stockedRead More.

  • OAS moves to new premises

    25th January 2019

    OAS have moved to new state of the art premises not far away from the original location. Directions here.Read More.

  • New Microscope and Camera System Installed

    4th January 2019

    Santa brought us a brand new Leica DM6M motorised microscope! Give us a few weeks to get to grips with it and you’ll be seeing its output in our reports. The highlights include Z-Stacks for focused images and Tile Stitching for Ferrography Overviews as pictured below.Read More.

  • Update to Knowledge Base/Actions

    2nd January 2019

    We’ve added some content to the Actions section of the Knowledge Base. You can find it here.Read More.

  • SURE Formula Student 2019 Season

    4th December 2018

    We are happy to confirm our continued sponsorship of the Swansea University Racing Engineering Formula Student Team for the 2019 season.Read More.

  • STS Update to ISO 9001:2015 Complete

    21st September 2018

    We are very pleased to announce successful switch over to a new ISO 9001:2015 compliant Quality Management System. We took this opportunity to review and improve our processes and are very pleased with the outcome. The review also gives us direction for further improvement. You can access the ISO 9001:2015 certificate here. An important partRead More.

  • SURE Car Launch

    18th June 2018

    It isn’t often that I am invited to a car launch. Especially if the car in question is the one we sponsor. Click on Read More to see under the covers.Read More.

  • Formula Student Sponsorship

    17th April 2018

    We are proud to announce the beginning of a long term sponsorship of the Swansea University Racing Engineering Formula Student Team.Read More.

  • TriboUK 2018 Sponsorship

    23rd January 2018

    We are proud to continue our sponsorship of the annual postgraduate student tribology conference TriboUK 2018. TriboUK is a conference that aims to bring together PhD students in the field of Tribology. It is an opportunity for young researchers to share their work with their peers and build networks across academia and industry. The themeRead More.

  • TriboUK 2017 Sponsorship

    9th February 2017

    Another year and another Student Tribology Conference to sponsor! Check out TriboUK 2017, which this year is hosted by Imperial College London.Read More.

  • TriboUK 2016 Gallery is up

    26th July 2016

    A few pictures from the TRIBOUK 2016 conference that we sponsored. If you want to see the future of Tribology go and have a look through the gallery.Read More.

  • FTIR Competition

    28th April 2016

    To celebrate the arrival of our new FTIR spectrometer we are launching a Guess the Spectra competition on our LinkedIn page.Read More.

  • New FTIR

    28th April 2016

    We have a new addition to announce. We have just purchased a Perkin Elmer Spectrum Two FTIR Spectrometer to replace our elderly Nicolet Integra. As well as having the usual oil cell set up it comes with a UATR accessory, which lets us test a much wider range of substances.Read More.

  • TriboUK 2016

    30th March 2016

    We are proud to continue our involvement in supporting Tribology research by sponsoring the 2016 TriboUK student conference hosted this year by Leeds University. Check it out.  Read More.

  • New Density Meter purchased

    6th November 2015

    We are pleased to announce that as part of our continued investment programme we have purchased a Mettler Toledo DM40 density meter. As well as sporting a touch screen this instrument can report density and specific gravity readings to 4 decimal places at a range of temperatures.Read More.

  • Online Results Database

    28th August 2015

    As many of you are aware we have switched over to our web portal for reporting oil analysis results. If you’ve sent some samples recently you would have been issued with login details. If you haven’t seen the portal yet then below is a tiny preview. Feel free to drop us a line if youRead More.

  • TriboUK report

    14th May 2015

    The conference was a resounding success with plenty of UK and overseas participants, including some high profile key note speakers. If you want to check out what’s hot in Tribology research these days go to the conference web site and have a look at the proceedings.Read More.

  • TriboUK 2015 student conference

    9th March 2015

    We are proud to continue our involvement in supporting Tribology research by sponsoring the 2015 TriboUK student conference. Check it out. “TriboUK, the annual student tribology conference, is coming to Loughborough in 2015. Now in its 12th year, this two-day conference provides PhD level students from any institution the ideal platform to present their tribologyRead More.

  • Updated test descriptions and sample reports

    13th May 2014

    We have just uploaded some two-page mini leaflets detailing some of the tests on our services page. Each describes the relevant tests in a paragraph or so and shows an example report on the second page.Read More.

  • Bottle Cleanliness

    12th May 2014

    I came across this article on bottle cleanliness while catching up with the latest articles. Our standard issue bottles have repeatedly tested as satisfactory for cleanliness levels, and our ability to repeatedly generate consistently clean results on monthly samples from clean systems confirms it. The Patch Test Method used also offers another line of defenceRead More.

  • A simple tip for oil drum storage

    27th February 2014

    This is so simple and clever that I can’t help but share! See the original article here and then go out and do it!Read More.

  • Plant & Asset Management 2014 at NEC, April 8-10

    13th January 2014

    We will be exhibiting at Plant & Asset Management 2014 at NEC, Birmingham. Come and see us on stand P314 on 8-10th of April this year. We will be exhibiting the latest developments in analytical test methods as well as software. It’s promising to be a busy week with Drive & Controls, Fluid Power &Read More.

  • Why you should sample and test new oil

    3rd December 2013

    Virgin oil testing has always been essential. This article in Machinery Lubrication explains why and also gives a nice breakdown of the ISO code meaning and significance This leads quite naturally into the following article on Cleanliness Targets Another increasingly relevant reason is to run the RULER test on the virgin oil so that furtherRead More.

  • Sending oil samples via Royal Mail

    30th July 2013

    Royal Mail has tightened up restrictions on sending samples through the post. We recommend that you use a suitable courier service to send the oil samples as this ensures prompt delivery and assists in tracking samples. If, however, you do have to use a Royal Mail service it is our understanding that you can sendRead More.

  • Thinking of starting an oil analysis programme?

    3rd October 2012

    If you are visiting our web site for the first time you may be looking at starting an oil analysis programme, but you may also need to justify the cost to senior management. This article on Justifying an Oil Analysis Program may provide some of the arguments you’ve been looking for. Remember you can alwaysRead More.

  • Picking a lubricant supplier

    22nd September 2012

    This section has been a little quiet of late – we are busy with our new web database (more on that later). In the meantime we have been asked to advise on picking a lubricant supplier. Machinery lubrication site had some useful answers as always. If you are looking to switch have a read ofRead More.

  • How filters work to control contamination

    14th April 2012

    We have recently come across this rather thorough yet simple explanation of How Filters Work to Control Contamination. The article was written in 2001 but still makes for an interesting read today. This would be a good time to expand on the test methods and the obvious one to cover today will be Particle Counting.Read More.

  • Tips for Reducing Wrong Oil Mistakes.

    23rd March 2012

    One of the reasons for running our virgin oil promotion was to raise awareness of issues surrounding storage and handling of new oils – in particular use of incorrect oils caused by poor procedures. The following short article from the Machinery Lubrication magazine gives simple Tips for Reducing Wrong Oil Mistakes. We will also useRead More.

  • Elemental Analysis of Industrial lubricants

    23rd March 2012

    Continuing introduction of the key oil analysis tests offered at the lab we would like to draw your attention to this 7 minute video on Elemental Analysis of Industrial Lubricants. It covers the basic principles of elemental analysis and introduces the two types of instruments that are most commonly used. We have recently switched fromRead More.

  • Oil Sampling do’s and don’ts and other useful advice

    13th March 2012

    We will start the articles section off with the basics Oil Sampling Do’s and Don’ts and other useful advice from the Machinery Lubrication magazine.Read More.