I have collected many articles ,reports and research papers that show
that fluid contamination in automotive automatic
transmissions;engines;  power steering and hydraulic systems reduces
component life due to Abrasive and Erosive and other forms of
wear.Papers show that if you remove the particles smaller than 40
microns down to the thickness of the lubricating fluid [oil] which
approximates from 3 to 15 microns ,then you extend the components
reliable operating life, as the Cycle of Wear is reduced or
eliminated.I have also found that the composition of the contaminated
oil is metal and non metal particles and debris and also in one study
that the percentage of contaminants in the oil are approx 50%iron,12%
Aluminum ;21%copper and 7% lead..the rest is other bits and pieces.
What i cannot find and is my query is any reliable authorative
papers,reports, field data,on the varying effect of the different
contaminants on the components life and performance...is it the iron
that causes the damage as it is harder than the other metals and does
the Aluminum and Copper have any destructive effect on the component
or the lubricating fluid in the system?.
Therefore what i seek is authorative reports ,papers;field data on
this aspect of contamination.

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Request for Question Clarification by umiat-ga on 09 Jun 2005 15:36 PDT

Hello, magnafine!
 I have spent quite a bit of time on this question, and have only
managed to find one reference which touches on the specific types of
particles that cause the most damage (and it is not a research paper).
Please let me know if there is any other direction I can go to help
you.

From "A brief history on the Magnom, a revolutionary fluid cleaning
product from the UK." http://212.240.121.32/new/history.asp

"In many applications the most damaging contaminant in any fluid
system is ferrous or high carbon steel of any size. It is also typical
to observe that the smaller contaminant particles tend to be the
harder ones that cause most of the damage (this is logical as these
hard particles are not easily torn from the bearing components etc. in
larger fragments). In support of this, many research papers have shown
that in any typical fluid system, for example hydraulic or lube
circuits, often only 7-10% of the contaminant is ferrous, but it can
cause over 90% of the wear and therefore failures."

umiat

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Clarification of Question by magnefine-ga on 14 Jun 2005 22:21 PDT

Sorry guys..i didnt expect such a prompt reply and have been away for a few days.
Re the clarification..Yes i have seen this site its a group called
"fluid conditioning systems'out of the UK.
In this abstract they say "many research papers etc" but do not quote any.
Additionally their proposition that often only 7-1% of the contaminant
is ferrous etc is not supported and it may apply to some particular
lube circuits.

Your qusetion is whether there is any other direction you can
go...well as you can see even this abstract only proposes that the
7-10% of the contaminant that is ferrous and "causes over 90% of the
wear" does not really justify that proposition with any
data/reports/trials.
Which brings us back to the original proposition of "is it the ferrous
metal that causes the wear and what wear does it cause and what do the
"wear " or "action/activity" do the other contaminants
perform/cause.Whether they are the other 93 or 90% remaining..In the
article,"Development of a Laboratory Test Contaminant for
transmissions "by John G Eleftherakis and Abrahim Khalil Fluid
Technologies Inc Stillwater OK. Society of Automotive Engineers SAE
paper 900561 the authors show that the percentages are more like
Ferrous 50.63% but that is a particular lube circit [i.e an auto
transmission or in the case of their paper, data from many
transmissions] but even here they do not show what damage each of the
particular contaminants perform.
I hope this has made the direction clearer and clarified your
concern.The papers of the calibre quote here are more the type of
reports i seek rather than unsupported comments in a website.