Patent ID: 8770047

Claim:
A method for wear analysis comprising: introducing a lubricant sample extracted from a machine and carrying suspended particles associated with machine wear into an elongate receptacle, wherein the receptacle comprises: a plurality of tubes pairwise detachably fastened to each other in an end-to-end fashion to jointly define a continuous channel within the receptacle, wherein an uppermost tube is configured to receive the lubricant sample; and a plurality of filter patches, each filter patch within the plurality of filter patches disposed between pairwise fastened tubes and each filter patch within the plurality of filter patches having a predetermined pore size; centrifuging the receptacle for displacing the lubricant sample along a length of the channel; and inhibiting passage of at least a portion of the suspended particles through the plurality of filter patches, wherein the at least a portion of the suspended particles includes particles having sizes larger than the predetermined pore size of each filter patch within the plurality of filter patches, and wherein pairwise fastened tubes are separable for removing or replacing the filter patch disposed therebetween.