OEM Trends: Globalization A

challenge for the lubricant

Industry
Moscow
November 23, 2006
Michael Reinehr

How to Keep Up with Globalization

OEMs are acting more and more global
As a consequence the lubricant industry is faced
with continued challenges from the globalization
of many industrial lubricant drivers
These drivers are dominated by in particular
European OEMs, government regulations and
many other factors

Lubricant market is changing!

Change of Industrial Lubricants

Without a doubt, the European OEMs will dominate the
changes to the industrial lubricants in Russia for the next
few years.
It will be a challenge for the Russian lubricant
industry to maintain approvals and strategize for the
future.
a Bearing fatigue, micropitting and bearing corrosion have started

to dominate the industry test laboratories as wind mill, paper

machine and some mobile equipment evolves to European
design.

European Tests and Standards

European Tests and Standards which are most often developed
and endorsed by European OEMs start to influence the industrial
lubricant requirements in Russia
a Good examples are Denison HF-O Test, FAG FE-8 and FZG gear

tests
a DIN 51524 and DIN 51517

To obtain approvals from the European OEMs they need to be

contacted, and in most of the cases extensive test programs need to
be run.
a These test programs mostly require European tests
a In most of the cases these tests are difficult to find in Russia
a European test labs or OEM test laboratories need to be involved.

Contacting these labs and arranging for the testing can be

problematic with language barriers, currency issues etc

Base Stock Consideration

The tendency to have multiple base stocks in the system might
become a problem since many European OEMs will not read
across data from one base oil to another
a Tendency is driven by cost, availability and specifications
a A great deal of testing for the approval for any given base oil might be

required
a This adds cost to many base oil changes in a blend plant which may
often be overlooked when the base oil change decision is made

It is getting more and more difficult to

get a full range of approvals!

Approval Procedures - Example

Hydraulic Fluids
Bosch Rexroth (BR) operates three major plants in Germany:
Ulm-Eichingen, Lohr am Main and Horb.
a Ulm-Eichingen plant is responsible for 3 BR specifications
a Lohr am Main is responsible for 1 BR specification.
That means different people at different Bosch Rexroth plants have
to be contacted to obtain approval.
In addition, the testing required in one of the Ulm-Eichingen
specifications is carried out at the Horb plant exclusively.

Denison HF-0 approvals are now obtained from Vierzon

(south of Paris) in France
a T6H20C Hybrid pump testing required

Approval Procedures Example

Bearing, Gear & Turbine Fluids
SKF and FAG paper machine oil and wind turbine gear oil
data is reviewed in Sweden & Germany respectively.
a Most of the testing required to obtain these approvals
needs to be run at SKF and FAG in Germany.
Flender industrial gear approval is given in Bocholt, Germany.
a The Flender approval requires a variety of non-standard
wear and compatibility testing to be run in Germany
Additionally extensive test house coordination work
is coming up.
Alstom Power Turbo Systems formal approval comes out of
their headquarters in Baden, Switzerland.
a

Alstom approvals are based on test data generated by Alstom

Power Generation AG in Mannheim, Germany.

Approval Procedures Example Wind

Turbine Gear Fluids
Winergy wind turbine lubricant approval takes place in VoerdeFriedrichsfeld, Germany.
a To obtain a Winergy approval a field trial needs to be run
Regular inspections are part of the FT requirements
Accordingly Winergy prefers to have trials run in Germany or at least in
Europe

This is the same as for all the other gearbox manufacturers

supplying into the windmill industry like Hansen Transmissions from
Antwerp in Belgium, Metso Drives from Jyvaskyla in Finland,
Eickhoff and Jahnel Kestermann both in Bochum, Germany and
Bosch Rexroth Getriebetechnik in Witten, Germany.
In general, all wind turbine gear OEMs would like to
have run field trials preferably close by, at least
within Europe.

Major European OEMs - Locations

There are numerous other
European OEMs that are
shaping the globalization of
industrial lubricants.
This is a situation where
additive companies are
called upon for the
expertise in supplying the
Russian lubricant industry
with global trends
presentations and to offer
support in obtaining
European OEM approvals.

Need to be close to Major OEMs

The complexity of obtaining a full range of European
OEM approvals and the expertise needed to do this
inevitably leads to the conclusion to base OEM activities
in Europe.
Afton Chemical decided to concentrate the European
OEM activities in Hamburg / Germany.
Consequently the Afton Global development for
industrial products also is based in Europe
a Afton GLOBAL development based in Bracknell / UK.

Where to base OEM and

Development activities
The majority of the most relevant OEMs in terms of
lubes specifications are based in German
speaking areas
a
Bracknell
Hamburg

OEM activities based in Germany helps to avoid

problems with language, currency and last but not
least culture.

Hamburg has the benefit of relatively short ways to

most of the non German speaking OEMs in
a
a
a

Scandinavia (WT manufacturer, Metso Gear &

Paper, VOLVO etc)
Benelux (Hansen Transmissions)
Mediterranean area (Spain, Italy)

The OEM information is fed on short ways to the

Afton Global development for industrial products
based in, Bracknell / UK.

Summary
As the European equipment manufacturers penetrate the Russian market, the
industrial lubricant market will more than likely become more fragmented.
a

Often there is a period of time where end users have difficulties to find the right
lubricant for the latest machinery technology.

As the lubricants performance requirements change there is opportunity the

more dynamic and agile marketers to tailor products and services to the
industry.
To change a product portfolio to state-of-the-art products a reliable and
knowledgeable technology partner is an essential benefit
Afton is working closely with major OEMs and is deeply involved in all major
industry activities such as ISO, DIN, ASTM, FVA etc
Afton has a full range of products to meet all industrial lubricant requirements
Afton technology being evaluated in-house and in close
co-operation with OEMs