UNAIR NEWS – With funding from DIKTI, five students of Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) in collaboration with PT Pertamina Persero is currently developing foam level measurement software for lubricants. It is being developed because as of today foam level measurement is done manually and is susceptible to reading inaccuracy with more possible different perception of measurement on lubricants quality test standards.
Nadifah Taqwina Hartrining Pangestuti, the head of the Students Creativity Program Technological Implementation (PKM-T) FST UNAIR, said that the foam level is a parameter in lubricants quality control as it affects machinery attrition.
”So this foam level testing is important for lubricant products used for ships, for example,” said Nadifa to the journalist.
With her four friends, Andin Istiqomatul Husnia, Mokhammad Deny Basri, Mokhammad Dedy Bastomi, and Akhmad Afrizal Rizqi, they agreed to develop this software because Board of Statistics Centre’s data shows increasing number of vehicles year by year. It is good news for transportation field companies such as PT Pertamina Lubricants Gresik.
To improve the performance of the machines, as the biggest oil company in Indonesia, PT Pertamina was expected to produce high quality lubricant products. So fast and accurate lubricant parameter testing is needed. After reviewing problems and the practices on site, collaboration finally made with lubricants quality control laboratory of PT Pertamina Lubricants Gresik (PUG) to innovate one of the lubricant parameter tests, foaming test.
In line with the annual Students Creativity Program, five UNAIR students used this development as their proposal “Sistem Segmentasi Citra Sebagai Pengukuran Tendensi dan Stability Volume Busa pada Foaming Test Pelumas di Laboratorium PT. Pertamina Lubricants Gresik Berbasis Borland Delphi 7”. The proposal was accepted well and deemed worthy of General Directorate of Higher Education’s funding.
Elaborated by Nadifa, the device to measure the foam level was named “FoamLab” and this software uses image processing system as one of its measurement techniques. So FoamLab is a software specially designed to measure the lubricant tendency and stability using camera as sensors with Delphi programming as the video and audio processing.
Tendency and stability are the foaming test parameters. Tendency is foam volume formed in the first 10 minutes, while stability is foam volume left in five minutes of tendency measurement in the controlled temperature and diffuser.
Nadifa and friends admitted that the software still has to go through certification and standardization test before it is implemented in all PT. Pertamina quality control laboratories in Indonesia. The team is currently calibrating FoamLAb, and they are sure that this software will helped greatly in foam level testing.
“With this device, the measurement is accurate. I do not have to debate with others to determine the results. Furthermore it runs automatically and easy to operate,” said Komarudin, one of the lab analyst in PT Pertamina PUG when requested for comments. (*)
Author : Bambang Bes
