AXEL News & Blog

Hello, my name is Eric van der Horst. I recently started as General Manager at AXEL Christiernsson in the Netherlands. I have had different leadership positions in several international companies including plastic composites manufacturer Voestalpine Polynorm, Polytec (both Austrian), Drum manufacturer Greif (US) and plastic packaging manufacturer Precise Technology (US- later sold to Rexam -UK). I started my career at Manuli (rubber hose assemblies for automotive) after military duty and studying mechanical engineering. I have worked in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain and have extensive experience in the automotive supplier sector.

AXEL Christiernsson has acquired the operating assets and the majority of other assets of Royal Mfg Co, LP. The business will now be carried forward as AXEL Royal LLC, a subsidiary of AXEL Americas LLC, building on the heritage of Royal Mfg Co, LP as a well-established supplier of lubricating greases and lubes in the US market and abroad.

On the 14th & 15th September, ACIs’ 2016 European Base Oils & Lubricants Summit will be taking place at the Hilton Warsaw Hotel & Convention Centre in Warsaw, Poland.

During the 2016 NLGI annual meeting in Hot Springs, Virginia, John Lorimor (AXEL Americas) was the recipient of the NLGI’s prestigious Author Award. This annual award is given to the best paper presented at the prior year’s meeting that focuses on formulation, development, and manufacture of finished greases.

John’s paper, titled "Development of next generation electrical motor greases offering improved frictional characteristics,” demonstrated that novel polymer based grease thickeners such as AXEL’s NoioN product line, when specially formulated for friction reduction, can offer improved energy efficiency in applications like electric motors over the benchmark EM bearing greases currently dominating this market.

Lithium, or rather the lack of it, is a subject of deep concern for many grease manufacturers. What if there is a world shortage due to its use in other applications such as car batteries or nuclear fuel?  We may not need to look any further than to the deep blue sea, all according to an interesting article in the April 2014 edition of Chemical Engineering. Japanese scientists are seemingly investigating a method of recovering lithium from seawater while simultaneously generating electricity. The same researchers are planning to build a pilot plant to recycle lithium from batteries and recover lithium and other minerals from desalination brine. So we may no longer have to rely on the national treasures of South America. And there may still be hope for Clarence Earle´s invention, and for many grease makers.

In an extremely interesting article by Lisa Tocci in the April 2014 issue of Lubes´n´Greases entitled “Is this sustainable?” she refers to a presentation made in Esslingen recently by Lutz Lindemann of Fuchs Petrolube. He reported that lubricants consumption worldwide remained essentially unchanged over the past year despite a general global production growth of around 2%. The world’s vehicle population has increased dramatically over the years while the average volume of lubricants consumed per car has fallen sharply. So, while economists are now expecting global GDP to expand by some 3.6% in 2014, how will this relate to our lubricating greases?  A difficult equation to solve!  It does mean however that a lower volume of grease is seemingly doing a very good job and that the value of grease (per kilo) should be much greater.

I am told that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But how about a free ad ??  I believe it is always better when “somebody else” promotes your product rather than having to praise it all by yourself.  This very morning, I received a copy of a new and “comprehensive guide to grease” issued by Afton Chemical. This is an attractive and very illustrative handbook dealing not only with technical aspects but also market analyses and the impact of key trends on grease. I was however very surprised to see some specific items being mentioned in the chapter on grease thickeners. There are sections on simple soaps and complex soaps but even on an AXEL speciality, so-called “functional thickeners”. And not only that, a description of lithium bismuth complex greases. And this is indeed an AXEL exclusive technology. It is the basis of our “DubBiLit” product portfolio, using bismuth 12-hydroxy stearate as an integral part of the soap structure. In the context of REACH, AXEL has, in sole majesty, notified this material at ECHA under Directive 67/548/EEC (also called NONS) and has received a recognised notification number. So nobody else should be producing or importing this material into the European Union (legally that is !!).

It’s election year here in Sweden and all the different political parties are already trying to surpass each other in what they can offer. And with very few exceptions, it’s all about “growth”. In order to create prosperity and jobs, our industries and institutions need to grow. However, even if we want to look the other way, we must begin to realise that our beloved Earth is already “full”. We are already operating at more than 140% capacity and we are now planning to run the economy faster and harder. It is not possible to have nine billion people in a growing quantitative economy. Given that we have limited resources and wealth and can’t grow either significantly, we have to share. And everything needs to be recycled. There is quite simply not enough arable land to be able to produce enough food for 9 billion people in addition to all the renewable materials required for power generation (energy), industry (products) and also wood to burn to be able to remove excess CO₂ from our atmosphere.

Stress, strain and time are the three cardinal parameters of material flow and these are the basis of what has come to be better known in the grease industry as rheology. Everything flows; it’s just that some things take a little longer. In the book of Judges 5:5, the song of the prophetess Deborah tells us that “the mountains flowed before the Lord”.  Whether Deborah understood the gift of divine patience or whether the Good Lord knew that higher temperatures can bring material response into the window of observation remains unknown.

Please be very careful in claiming you’re “right” because there are many different perspectives and angles to be considered. I have, for instance often been told that “Here in Australia, we drive on the right side of the road, the left”. So what’s right for you may be wrong (or left) for me.  This is the subject of Edward de Bono’s deliberation on “Water Logic” in contrast to what he calls stone logic. Logic is really simple mathematics, all about yes and no, but it has all to do with perception of course.  The spell check on my computer is a real source of irritation and it keeps proposing the most horrible alternatives, referring to something called “American English”.  Wasn’t it Winston Churchill who commented upon two nations separated by a common language?