Eddy Devriese, Texaco Lubricants’ manager, Europe OEMs, provides his expert insight into the company’s credentials in the off-highway sector.
What credentials does Texaco have in the off-highway sector?
Eddy Devriese: Texaco Lubricants is a globally recognised brand with an extensive history spanning over 120 years. We’ve spent decades establishing the processes that have enabled us to drive performance and make advancements across the sectors that we engage in. The off-highway sector is extremely important to us, and we are always striving for technological advancements to serve our customers in this area.
Our off-highway experience is considerable. A number of our off-highway customers work in mining, with most of the distributors that we work with in the mining sector operating out of Eastern Europe.
Alongside a wide range of products, we also offer expertise to our customers. For example, we have an impressive selection of mining and construction experts in our European team, as well as a mining specialist that works out of Australia and consults for Texaco Lubricants in Europe, too.
One of our biggest mining customers is based in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyzstani market has been extremely fulfilling for us, although it has does come with its own challenges. One of the biggest difficulties in remote locations, such as Kyrgyzstan, is the physical delivery of our products. It often isn’t easy to visit and access the mining facilities that our customers operate out of, and this issue is exacerbated by the extreme conditions that exist within these areas. Temperatures can drop as low as -30C, and we are working on products that have a broad span of temperature behaviours, so it isn’t a simple task to find the right product for the application. We also need to ensure that our products can continue to support mining operations in the future.
We also have a strong presence in the construction sector. Our experience in construction has been less challenging than in mining, but make no mistake, the conditions experienced in the construction sector are still incredibly arduous. This is primarily due to a high amount of dust on sites. In these conditions, it is quite difficult for the lubricants to function effectively – if there is a lot of dust present, it reduces the drain intervals of the equipment’s engines.
Off-highway operators also need to ensure that their graduation systems are working optimally, so we’ve been working with OEMs to see how our products can help extend service intervals. Typically, service intervals for mining and construction equipment are around 500 hours, and following stringent testing, we have found that certain Texaco Delo products can extend these service intervals to up to 1,000 hours.
We offer a whole suite of products for the mining and construction industries, including hydraulic oils, engine oils, and compressor oils. Our own independent research has demonstrated that for mining operators, the cost of the lubricants may be relatively low, but conversely, the cost to the operator of issues relating to lubrication can be anywhere up to 40 per cent of the cost of operation, which is significant. The role of lubrication is so important that it is vital to use the correct, recommended lubricants. We want to help our customers find the right product to use at the right time and the right place.
Equally important is the need to stay on top of lubricant performance. For our off-highway customers, we strongly recommend that they undertake regular oil analysis. It is crucial for maintenance staff to frequently check oil levels, but the most significant element is that our customers use the correct lubricant – one which is most suited to their business application.
