A flow cell for monitoring operating fluid in an environment with elevated temperature and/or pressure comprises a body having a body aperture. The body aperture provides opposing inlet and outlet flow slits that are disposed within a wall maintained by the body aperture. The body aperture is configured to receive upper and lower transparent plates that are separated by a pair of spaced shims. The spaced shims define a flow channel between the plates, which is aligned with the inlet and outlet f...

A fixture for imaging particles passing through a cell includes a plate having a plurality of aligned component pin openings and a plurality of mount holes. Several components are mounted to the plate including a camera mount, an illuminator assembly, and a lens support assembly. The camera mount assembly has a pair of registration pins receivable in a pair of plurality of component pin openings, and the camera mount has a pair of base holes alignable with a pair of mount holes for receiving fas...

An optical flow cell is disclosed that includes a flow cell body having an inlet and an outlet with a flow opening therebetween to allow a fluid to pass therethrough. A light entry fixture and a light imaging fixture are transversely carried by the flow cell body to allow viewing of the flow opening, wherein the light entry fixture is positioned at one side of the body and the light imaging fixture is positioned at an opposite side of the body. The fixtures are made from at least some materials ...

A tribological debris analysis system alternately including a general purpose computer used in conjunction with an imaging device and an illumination delivery system, or a circuit board integrating an embedded processor with the imaging device used in conjunction with the illumination delivery system. The illumination delivery system includes a bypass conduit connected to the machine under evaluation, an optical flow cell, a pump for pumping a fluid through the optical flow cell connected to the...

A tribological debris analysis system includes a general purpose computer; and a tribological sensor system for generating data. The sensor system includes an optical flow cell a pump for pumping a fluid through the optical flow cell, a laser for illuminating the fluid flowing through the optical flow cell, and an imaging device for detecting any debris in the fluid illuminated by the laser. The imaging device sends the object information--in either the form of object elements or objection segme...

An optical flow is disclosed having a shell with a first portion and a second portion. The first portion provides a light entry aperture, and the second portion provides an imaging aperture. An inlet tube and an outlet tube are retained between the first portion and the second portion. A viewing assembly is retained between the first portion and the second portion. The viewing assembly includes a reference plate and a flow channel. The flow channel fluidly communicates with the inlet tube and th...