Publisher's Note
The Indian grease market is the world’s third-largest and currently at 1,20,000 MT per year and growing approximately 2 percent per year, according to the data shared at NLGI India Chapter Conference held at Ambay Valley Resort, Pune recently. That would rank India well behind China and North America but ahead of Japan and Europe’s biggest markets.
Lithium & Lithium Complex greases continue to dominate the market, accounting for about 90 percent, with all other types of greases accounting for the balance 10%. The quantity of Poly urea products is negligible. The trend toward higher technology greases may see an upward trend in the next five to ten years due to the use of wide variety of industries of modern equipment from foreign original equipment manufacturers that recommend or require use of higher quality greases. Your magazine was the media partner for the event.
We also actively participated in the Servo Mining Meet 2016, which was organised at Ranchi recently. Our mining domain expert Mr Michael Hooper from New Zealand spoke on “Driving Efficiency & Productivity gains in mining through use of latest lubrication practices” at the plenary session, besides another paper on “Monitoring Oil for Equipment Health”.
Your magazine continues to bring generic and specific lubrication and lubricating oil related news and views as required in the current domestic industrial environment. Engine oil quality remained the prime focus in the first issue of this year. Of note were industrial and auto engines upgraded and updated in line with specialized outputs required.
A lubricant may therefore choose to remain generically well thought of, or be tailored for specific use. At hand are stated properties required for engine oils as with viscosity and viscosity classification related to the operating condition.
Similar reasoning leads on this issue of the cover story and current maintenance culture. We delve into the behavioural sciences to present remedies and the fact that companies, big and small, would benefit from a culture intervention even if it is outlined through a formal program. At stake is company reputation through efficient maintenance of plant assets. Our specialists provide answers through remedies for such company culture if taken for granted. Most of that, as always, lies with management and leadership even when the right people are in the right jobs. The idea is to prevent machinery failure by pre-empting that failure besides having to take corrective measures after a breakdown.
In other words, today’s maintenance toolbox should not just be used for repair and take corrective measures. Tools and devices that inspect and control conditions that might lead to failure or are incipient symptoms of failure have also to be kept at hand. How-to’s are also provided, such as education and training, learning and workweek control.
Warm Regards,
Udey Dhir
