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 bypass conduit, and a laser for illuminating the fluid flowing through the optical flow cell. The imaging device detects debris and sends information representative of the debris to the general purpose computer or the embedded processor. The general purpose computer or the embedded processor classifies the debris according to size, generates shape features of the imaged debris and identifies a type of object wear based upon the shape features.