The industrial lubricant oils in UAE market is gradually shifting to lower-viscosity products, with advancing technology and better understanding of their benefits making them more available for use by more truck fleets. The passenger car industry started to transition a couple decades ago or so. Over the past few years, the market has introduced even lighter oils, including SAE 0W-16, SAE 0W-12 and SAE 0W-8.
Purification noted that in the technolube market, SAE 15W-40 was the clear leader for many years. More recently a transition towards SAE 10W-30 has taken place, and slowly but surely a move has occurred towards the latest diesel engine oil category and lower-viscosity SAE 10W-30 oils.
Demand is now shifting towards even lighter oils that meet three key needs for automotive lubricants truck fleets. The latest engine architecture has tighter clearances, and therefore requires thinner lubricants that can flow more easily around the engine to key components. Secondly, a lower viscosity will improve efficiency by reducing viscous drag on moving parts, which enables the oil to flow more efficiently through the engine, and in turn improves fuel economy.
Fuel expenses are a considerable outlay for technolube fleets, accounting for up to 30% to 40% of a company’s overall cost. This means that any reduction in fuel consumption can be extremely important with even small decreases having an impact on a business’s bottom line. The third need relates to colder climates. These oils can also decrease the warm up time of gasoline engine oil, which offers superior protection for fleets operating in colder climates.
Purification noted that engine oil development lately was largely driven by environmental legislation, which among other things aims to reduce emissions of air pollutants from vehicles. To do this, it responded with commercial oils hardware improvements to meet emissions regulations and lubricants needed to adopt to meet the specific needs of engine design, such as metallurgy and a more compact design. As well as enhance the engine’s overall efficiency.
Purification said one of the most significant recent developments in the industry was the transition to lubricants meeting the latest API CK-4 and FA-4 diesel engine oil standards. As expected, the transition to CK-4 has been successful. This was because the industry was well prepared and invested in education and clear communication around the change. CK-4 engine oils are backwards compatible; they offer enhanced protection against oxidation and viscosity loss due to shearing and oil aeration to deliver better engine performance.
