[Samba]

Excellent coverage. Rated 5*.

I visited the Unocal76 plant during my visit to auto expo in February. I wrote about it my my Auto expo Ancillary thread in Team Bhp. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ml#post3910598
Instead of writing again let me quote my own post about how it happened. At the last moment you missed out on the plant visit with us. That time i thought of writing a thread on the plant visit but it never happened. Thank god you visited the plant later and did a wonderful job.

Originally Posted by Samba

When our Team BHP technical guru SS-Traveller met Mr.Ghatak there was really some brain storming discussion about the technicalities, though majority of that went over my head! But the icing on the cake was seeing these discussions AJ-Got-Bhp and Mr.Madhav Rajgarhia invited me, SS- Traveller & Samya to visit there industrial plant on 8th February when they were having an all India Delegation to visit their plant. We grabbed the offer immediately ! But sadly at the last moment SS-Traveller had to drop out and I visited the plant with my friend Samya Dasgupta in a self driven Duster from Myles and visited Agra too! But more on that later. Will write a different thread on the plant visit later on.

SS-Traveller has covered it in full details so am just sharing a pictorial report from my plant visit without going into the details.

The miniature showcase of the whole plant-







How it looks from out side-







The storage tanks which store the base oil























The blending tanks





The over head tanks generally used for filling containers.



The packaging section-

[Samba]

Few pics from inside the plant where they store the packaging materials and other products for packing and the way the finished products are checked and later transported in vehicles for transport-



















And few pics from their QC department-































That's all i had to share from my Unocal 76 plant visit in Feb 2016. Once again my sincere thanks to AJ-Got-Bhp and Mr.Madhav Rajgarhia for inviting me to the plant.

[gauravdgr8]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

- If the government approved used oil recycler in Delhi has a recycling capacity of 1800 KL/annum (as published on the MoEF website), and
- if there are over 9 million cars registered in Delhi, and
- if just half (4.5 million) of the cars in the city perform an oil change once a year, and each car has a minimum sump capacity of 3.5L,

then we are looking at the need to recycle 15,750 KL of used oil - which leaves us wondering where on earth the rest of the 13,950 KL of used oil disappears every year.

If you look at the Delhi recycler, he is based out of South Ex. His factory would surely be located somewhere in the outskirts.

If you further look into the list of Haryana recyclers, most of them are situated in the Delhi periphery. So in practicality, all of Delhi used oil is going in there.

[AJ-got-BHP]

Glad to know SS-Traveller and Samba that your visit to the UNOCAL 76 Lubricants Plant was a beneficial one and that it provided you a lot of insight on the process of Oil Making. On the other hand, a special vote of thanks to SS-Traveller for taking the effort and assimilating the time to pen down such a Technical Thread on this vast subject of "Lubricating Oils" which will be beneficial to everyone in the Forum. Rating it a Well Deserved 5*

Sharing some relevant pictures of my visit to the plant earlier this year at the time of the Auto Expo 2016.

This is what the Standy at the entrance of the Plant said :


The UNOCAL Flags fluttering :




The entrance to the plant :

Notice the Checklist (in Orange) on the Left Wall

The details on the CheckList :


Vehicle loading happening :


The materials of Action Construction Equipments (aka ACE) being loaded :


Note - Raaj UNOCAL Lubricants Ltd. is an Original Equipment Manufacturer to :

• Action Construction Equipments (ACE) Tractors
• Hindustan Motors (HM) which now defunct with operations suspended
• Atul Auto Ltd. - 3 Wheelers

Get Introduced to the Management

Mr. Madhav Rajgarhia (CEO) -


Mr. Alok Kumar Rajgarhia (MD) on the left with Mr. Ashish Kumar Ghatak (GM Operations) on the right :

The Lab : From where it all comes from :

Some Control Samples from the recently produced batches :


The two different categories of Base Oils - Namely Group-II (Yellowish) & Group-III (Transparent) :


The UNOCAL 76 Mobile Lab (which is in a briefcase and can be carried around to conduct certain On-Field Tests) :









Some equipments in the laboratory :



























The entrance to the Laboratory :

[AJ-got-BHP]

Within the Plant Pictures

The underground Additives Storage Tanks of 70 Metric Tonne (MT) Each :


The Horizontal Base Oil Storage Tanks :


Raw Materials received and checked by Quality Control Department for standards :


Empty Containers are stacked in the overhead mezzanine :


Empty Barrels stacked one on top of the other in a pyramid formation :


The way to the Mezzanine :


Some random pictures of the Plant :

























The Filling Line with Barrels queued up for filling :




Stacking & Stocking :












Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) Area where ready to dispatch packed materials are randomly checked for discrepancies :


Finally the dispatch section :


Hope my little contribution adds to the essence of this thread !!

[Mortis]

Well written and informative report, should satisfy some of us car nerds. One thing we can take note of is that the car manufacturers and their service centres use oil that just about meets the required specifications for their engines. Is this correct ? So would the same brand and grade of oil available in the retail market be of superior quality ? This seems to be similar to the way car manufacturers buy tyres I guess.

[lapis_lazuli]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

the Blotting Paper Test.

Is it something we could do on our own, say, a periodic DIY, with our cars' oil and arrive at fairly accurate conclusions? Is it a special grade of filter paper or is coffee variety OK? (or nearly OK)

Extremely informative thread!:

[devarshi84]

Was the transaction between United Oil and Raaj lubricants only for the brand name or was there some technology transfer involved ?

[RAPTOR-XUV]

Post edited: Adding quotes, to make the reply clearer and easy readability.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

SS-T: [i]Do you mean to say that a given grade of oil, let's say CH4 which I use, will not be the same for Company A, Company B or the OEM Genuine Oil manufactured by Company C?
=======
But to make some money out of the deal, the oil is formulated to comply with the bottom of the range - something like the 60% marks instead of 100%.

Reading at this is an eye opener Never expected such kind of differences in the so called manufacturer's brand oil. The oil formulation comparison between brands certainly helps in opting for a better brand of oil than what the manufacturer insists upon using in our cars. It makes sense to change the oil at ever 7.5k KMS as suggested by you after having a sense of what the recommended manufacturers engine oils would be like

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Samba

Excellent coverage. Rated 5*.

Originally Posted by Mortis

Well written and informative report, should satisfy some of us car nerds.

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

Extremely informative thread!:

Thank you, Samba, Mortis and lapis_lazuli.

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Would have expected higher levels of cleanliness in the blending plant.

Originally Posted by Samba

I visited the Unocal76 plant during my visit to auto expo in February.

To be noted is the fact that Samba's pics from their planned plant visit shows a more spick-and-span environment inside the plant. This of course is not surprising, considering that the time I went to the Maruti factory some years ago with a friend who worked there then, I found quite a messy floor - but when Skoda invited us to visit their Chakan plant, it was so clean that one could eat off the floor. Mr. Ashis Ghatak writes in to say:

Originally Posted by Mr. Ashis Ghatak

I appreciate the concern of Sutripta but he should visit a running plant of any renowned brands where approach is restricted up to reception or conference room during routine working hours. In last 25 years I have seen many of oil manufacturing plant including PSU's & I know the actual status. Whatever people see during any schedule visit is not the actual scene of that workplace.

Originally Posted by Sutripta

What about trace metal analysis?
How much oil is necessary for checking density?

Regarding Sutripta-da's other queries as above, Mr. Ghatak has this to say:

Originally Posted by Mr. Ashis Ghatak

Density is not a critical parameter for UOA & have no significance.

The cost of wear metal analysis is Rs.10000/- for a single sample in outside laboratory and we hope to provide that support FOC very soon to our customers only.

That part in bold from Mr. Ghatak sounds like really good news.

Originally Posted by Mortis

One thing we can take note of is that the car manufacturers and their service centres use oil that just about meets the required specifications for their engines. Is this correct ? So would the same brand and grade of oil available in the retail market be of superior quality ?

Yes. This is something I had a suspicion of earlier, and Mr. Ghatak confirms it. But I am unable to hunt up any datasheet for oils like MGO or Mahindra FEO on the internet, to compare with equivalent grades sold by lubricant manufacturers directly.

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

Is it something we could do on our own, say, a periodic DIY, with our cars' oil and arrive at fairly accurate conclusions? Is it a special grade of filter paper or is coffee variety OK? (or nearly OK)

Yes, we can do it on our own. Whatman (or equivalent brands of) general purpose filter paper is readily available from shops where one can buy school chemistry lab reagents etc. Even filter papers used for coffee filtration should do. The waiting time before assessing the results may vary, I think.

Originally Posted by devarshi84

Was the transaction between United Oil and Raaj lubricants only for the brand name or was there some technology transfer involved ?

There was a technical collaboration between Unocal and RULL.

Originally Posted by gauravdgr8

If you look at the Delhi recycler, he is based out of South Ex. His factory would surely be located somewhere in the outskirts.
If you further look into the list of Haryana recyclers, most of them are situated in the Delhi periphery. So in practicality, all of Delhi used oil is going in there.

Very interesting observation, thank you. The total recycling capacity of all units in Haryana is 17,920 KL/annum, and on a very conservative estimate we had a surplus of 13,950 KL/annum of used oil from Delhi itself. I guess some of it goes for official recycling to western UP too? And there is no recycler listed in the north-eastern states at all. I suppose the government expects the people there to dump it in China or Bangladesh.

But at the end of the day, why would anyone pay to dispose of used oil properly anyway, if someone comes and pays Rs.2-3 per litre to collect it? That unfortunately is our major problem.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Did ask Mr. Ghatak about it. Needs a spectrophotometer, worth a lot of money. They are in the process of procuring one.

GCMS I would think.

Regards
Sutripta

[cijo]

After seeing the pictures of the QA QC department , I think one should avoid this brand if there is another option. At least they should have labelled the devices properly than using "Muffle Furnance" , "Carbon Rasidue" etc. The factory is not clean or all the oil lubricant companies work this way ?

[Samba]

Originally Posted by cijo

After seeing the pictures of the QA QC department , I think one should avoid this brand if there is another option. At least they should have labelled the devices properly than using "Muffle Furnance" , "Carbon Rasidue" etc. The factory is not clean or all the oil lubricant companies work this way ?

Well i visited this plant last Feb. Rather than saying it's not clean, i would say the building is old, its not very shiny all through out. But inside it was clean.

Your observation's on the spelling errors are very apt but on choosing an oil i would rather give more stress on the 'used oil analysis' (UOA) report which SS-Traveller got it done after using the oil for more than 7,000 kms in his Scorpio. The results are pretty good. It speaks about the quality of the oil. But again i agree small errors/typos like these should be taken care off.

My personal experience is, am using their oil in my bike for the last 1.5 years and am more than happy. Am a bit paranoid about maintaining my cars and bike but still i sticked to this brand for my next oil changes as the quality of the oil was good.

You can refer to this post of mine from November 2015, when i hardly knew about this brand.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ml#post3855713

[hserus]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

I do 10K kms every 3 months and in these 92K kms that my Swift has clocked it has seen these 3 type of oils used. Cuddly using MGDO Mobil Super 5W40.

Hence after draining, can collect a litre of oil and keep it aside for testing.

But I am not sure if they'll do testing or no.

Remember - besides mileage run there is also 'time' - so if you have run your car for roughly 6 months on mineral or semi synth (longer for semi synth) or about a year on a good fully synthetic brand, you are due for an oil change regardless of your car having covered 10k km or hardly 4k km.

[haria]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Those who follow my practices in car maintenance would have noted earlier that I usually perform an engine oil change at around 7,500 km instead of the recommended 15,000 km, based on the apprehension that the oil does not actually last 15,000 km of use despite what the OEM might say to the contrary.

Excellent stuff, SS-Traveller. Very well written and your attention to detail is amazing. Even a newbie to oils (like me!) will understand this perfectly! Many thanks.

This may sound like sacrilege to many, but I have rarely gone into the details of the oils which is going in my car. I was just blindly following whatever the service engineer adviced/or for that matter, put, in my Alto for close to almost 8 years and about 1.15L km. It is only after I bought a diesel car, I started getting interested about this, even then it was only at a very superficial level (like the Brand or manufacturer name).

I will definitely read up more on this now interesting topic! Thanks again for whetting my interest in this by such a nice post!