Featuring a roster of some of the region’s leading uptime champions, next month’s roundtable on that subject, as well as improving fleet safety and efficiency is hosted by leading lubricant producer Valvoline.
For 150 years Valvoline has been on the leading edge of lubricants technology. Today, Valvoline operates a global network of research and development labs, distribution and customer services in 140 countries. Beyond industry-leading products, Valvoline offers increasing global brand strength and innovative tools that make it a valuable partner among installers, dealers, retailers, equipment manufacturers and operators. It is known as a leader in automotive maintenance products and services, and supplied industry leading lubricants, additives and automotive oil. Within the region, Valvoline is extending its footprint by increasing local production and logistics capacity.
Ahead of the event, T&FME spoke with Davide Crespi, sales and marketing manager, GM MEA and Mahir Bousselham, regional technical manager – MEA about its own approach to supporting fleets in the region.
Why is using the right lubricant important for fleets?
Davide Crespi: Factors that drive the fleet industry have changed drastically in the last decade, engine oils development is conditioned by emission regulations, fuel economy and productivity. These three factors have resulted in the development of new engines technology, hence new specifications for engine oil. The latest generation engines are made lighter, deliver higher power output, have complex materials and are fitted with new devises to reduce emissions: all these technologies has resulted into additional stress and constrains on engine oil, where the products needs to cope with additional soot level, higher thermal stress, be compatible with aftertreatment devices and be able to be used
for extensive service intervals.
Not using the right engine oil (or lubricant in general), can compromise the engine performance; durability; lead to higher fuel consumption; and reduce uptime which all increase the fleet total cost of ownership (TCO). Using the right lubricant helps fleets reach higher durability and uptime. It means extended service intervals and fuel economy. Premium synthetic driveline lubricants can improve fuel economy by 5%.
What are the possible risks if fleets opt to use the wrong lubricant for their vehicles?
Davide Crespi: Using the right lubricant can contribute directly or indirectly to the safety of driver and the machine, lubricants are involved with truck brake system, steering, wheel bearing and engine cooling. Using our recommended lubricants will prevent having any catastrophic failure on those devises which can compromise people and machinery safety.
It would be great to get an idea of the typical products needed by the heavy fleet sector in the local market
Mahir Bousselham: Fleet owners will require different type of fluids to run efficiently. This includes: driveline Lubricants such as engine oils to lubricate engines; transmission oils to lubricate gearboxes (API GL 4 fluids will be used for manual gearboxes while automatic gearboxes will require ATF fluids); and axle oils to lubricate the final drives and axles.
Greases are key as well as they lubricate the parts where oil lubricant can’t be used like the wheel bearing, the truck fifth wheel (where we need to use greases with high load capacity fitted with solid lubricants), the chassis and joints. High performance coolant fluids ensure the engine will run at an optimal temperature and be protected against corrosion, pumps cavitation and contamination. Using the right coolant for the engine contributes significantly to extend engine lifetime and prevent premature failures.
What are the important market-specific features of your own products?
Davide Crespi: Valvoline offers the full range of fluids (lubricants, coolants, greases and workshop products) needed by the fleet industry. Our mission as a partner for fleet companies is to reduce your TCO through a powerful combination of superior products, customised technical support, and service programmes. Together they can help maximise power output, support extended service intervals, help improve engine durability and enhance service efficiency.
Power loss or worse, engine failures, have serious financial consequences. Our engine oils meet the latest API/ACEA specifications, are approved by leading OEMs and have demonstrated unmatched performance in term of engine durability, level of protection, extending service intervals and reducing fuel economy. Our lubricants have demonstrated in several real cases ability to extend extensively the oil drain intervals. Valvoline and Cummins have taken engine lubrication to a whole new level with The Premium Blue range engine oil, for instance, being the only one endorsed and recommended by Cummins to be used for extended oil drain intervals and extends existing Oil Drain Intervals (ODIs) on X15 and X12 engine models by 5,000 miles. Our Profleet range can extend ODI by three times compared to current ODIs practiced in the market with conventional technologies.
We offer the same quality OEM-approved lubricants on the transmission side as well as total driveline lubricants to reduce the number of lubricants used by our customers.
In addition, we also produce the latest technology of cooling fluids used by OEMs. First fill fluids, these coolant offer extended durable protection and are designed to be compatible with the latest engine materials (whether it is iron-cast or aluminium engines). These coolants are designed with highly performing additives that sustain high level protection throughout the lifetime of coolant; our Valvoline HD Nitrite Free Coolant RTU has demonstrated extended service over 1 million km on heavy duty engines.
Valvoline is at the forefront of electrification, and we are working closely with OEMs to develop fluids for tomorrow’s electric vehicles. We already supply FF cooling and heat transfer fluids to leading electric vehicle manufacturers and recently launched dedicated a range of fluids for hybrid vehicles and Valvoline HT 12, the latest technology in coolants.
