Don't you hate it when you're changing the oil and you forget to suck out the abrasive sub-micron iron particles from your engine?

Me too.

Luckily when I was standing at the McGraw-Hill Construction booth at ConExpo 2011 Dennis O'Neel approached me with a solution.  I was taken off guard because no one had come to meet me during my 'meet the editor hour' thus far. But O’Neel did.

So I interviewed him and made a video of his five-month-fresh patented invention: Iron Filter.

Iron Filter is a semi-circle of magnets that O-Neel and physicist Seong-Jae Lee, claim is designed to be the most powerful array of magnets ever created. It clamps on your oil filter and is supposed to pull all of the submicron iron particles to the wall of the filter to be thrown out the next time you change your oil. Oh, and you can use it forever.

If you've never worried about sub-micron iron particles in your engine then you should, and I'm not just saying that like your doctor about your cholesterol. According to an MIT study the hard metal of piston rings scuffs off the softer metal of the cylinder wall, producing tiny iron particles that can get bonded together and cause exponential engine damage.

Also, according to the Journal of Synthetic Lubrication (yes, this is real) Volume 21, Issue 1, pages 33–42, April 2004, oil that has less metal in it will have improved emissions—which I wouldn’t have guessed.

“Diesel engine particulate emissions as well as hydrocarbons and NOX emissions depend on the lubricant oil properties, in particular on the sulphur content, volatility, and metal content,” says the Journal’s abstract.

 John Deere Construction Forestry is testing the Iron Filter with four, 500 hour field tests, in three different filtration applications: engine, hydraulic system, and transmission. The fourth and final 500-hour test is almost complete. Iron Filter will soon be available at tompkinsind.com for $65-$120 depending on the size.

But don't listen to me, or MIT, or The Journal of Synthetic Lubrication, watch Dennis O'Neel tell his story.