The new laboratories and works of the K S Paul Group

Citation

Wilson, B. (1998), "The new laboratories and works of the K S Paul Group", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 50 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.1998.01850caf.002

The new laboratories and works of the K S Paul Group

The new laboratories and works of the K S Paul Group

Keyword: Lubricants

Bill Wilson

When K S Paul, one of the leading companies in specialised lubricating materials and coatings was forced to make room for a major new road, this involved moving the company's sophisticated manufacturing and control processes to a new site. The company decided to take the opportunity to utilise the latest design concepts of plant layout and production on the new site.

The result: the New Angel Lodge Laboratories and Works in Edmonton, with highly advanced laboratory facilities and an up-to-date computerised plant with state-of-the-art quality control facilities.

The principal products

The group's principal products to be made by the new facilities consisted of a large range of specialised products, some highly specialised and for use in hostile and hazardous environments, many requiring complex manufacturing processes. The products cover lubricants for conveyors exposed to high temperatures, chemical or water vapours, such as in automotive factories; aqueous and hydrocarbon semi-colloidal and colloidal dispersions of graphite and/or molybdenum disulphide, as used in forging, gearbox oil and as engine[1] additives and many other applications, anti-seize and anti scuffing products that prevent welding of turbine, gearbox and other studs, even after having been exposed to high temperatures for several years, and many others, right up to the latest PFPE (perfluoropolyethers) materials, the latter in conjunction with DUPONT for which K S Paul acts as its technical marketeer for the UK, Eire, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Arguably K S Paul's most famous and best- known product is PolyButylCuprysil (PBC) the anti-seize and low speed lubricant which in 1988 was ­ and still is ­ the only lubricating material ever to have conferred on it, the coveted Queen's Award for Technological Achievement (see Plate 1).

Alongside the range of dispersions, dry lubricant coatings and lubricating compounds, a number of lubricating greases and oils are made to operate in high temperature environments. When used in conventional conditions, they facilitate a much extended life, i.e. they permit fewer reapplications and much longer relubrication intervals.

The new laboratory

To be assured of the latest state of technology and of control to the highest quality, the new laboratories were designed in six sections. The first contains an ISI-SX-40 Scanning Electron Microscope, theoretically capable of 250,000 magnifications, but in practice used only up to 30,000 magnifications. It is employed for studying the effect of coatings on gear teeth and piston rings and examining surface wear patterns of both metallic and non-metallic surfaces. The company's engineers connected the output to a large 25in. (635mm) monitor, and are at present developing a connection to a standard video recorder. This will enable videos of the scans to be sent to customers, universities and other collaborating laboratories.

The analytical section contains a wide range of particle size measuring equipment, a thermal electron atomic absorption spectrometer, a laser thermogravimetric analyser, gas chromatograph and other specialised instruments, some connected by computer to a common printer.

The main R&D Section is the most conventional, housing instrumentation and equipment suitable for such activities.

A special section contains all wear testing apparatus, including the MOD wear tester, a research shell 4 ball tester and a reciprocating Wear Tester used to assess sliding wear of metallic and non-metallic materials including leather and plastic.

Plate 1 Touch dry jet ink replenishment ­ a clean operation that can be carried out without pausing the coder

A mini-workshop containing small size versions of the production equipment, enables the researchers to compare laboratory test results with small scale production. This thinking was advanced further by installing in the new works midi production equipment for some processes, thus providing laboratory mini and midi production before deciding on full scale manufacturing processes.

The last but not least important laboratory section is devoted to quality control (QC). Not only is the company ISO 9001 approved for design, development and manufacture of its lubricating materials including plant associated with specialised oils, greases, dry film and functional fluids, but it has also various military and other approvals.

The mainly computerised production is wholly dependent on quality control. Unless approved by the QC section, no further processing of materials is possible, nor can finished products be released to customers.

The downside of this rigorous procedure is that samples of all finished products, together with records of every stage of manufacture and tests, are retained for two to five years. This is an essential requirement but one not always finding favour with the people working in the laboratory.

Manufacturing facilities

The move to a new site ­ the former Ever Ready works, which was bought after the Hanson Group had decided to stop battery manufacture in Edmonton ­ enabled K S Paul engineers and their consulting engineers to lay out production facilities; fundamentally the same as those developed by the company at the old site but incorporating latest known practices. Since the completion of the move MRPP (manufacturing resource planning) and computerised process controls have also been adopted (see Plate 2).

As a result, the three primary manufacturing processes can operate 24 hours per day, without attention at nights. The rejection rate of materials has been reduced to near negligible proportions.

The primary chemical mills, developed and designed by the company, operate in closed conditions ­ this for process integrity, safety and environmental reasons. Process operation within the mills must be maintained within a complex envelope of milling action, temperature and reactivity. Because of health and safety requirements all control instrumentation is housed in a separate control room where a TV monitor permits the operator to "see" the operation within the sound-proof enclosure. Automatic cooling is provided by a chiller plant.

Plate 2 Computer room from which all main processes are controlled

The milling processes are environmentally controlled to achieve optimum particulate shape, size and lamellar surfaces. The process envelope is contained and monitored automatically. If the set limits are exceeded the process will automatically shut down in a safe, controlled and recorded manner.

The start of an operation and its length can be pre-set by the system control equipment. For instance, if a process is to last 25 hours and to finish on a Monday at 8 a.m., the computer can be set to start the process on a Sunday at 7 a.m., without anyone being in attendance.

The process envelope, though monitoring innumerable parameters, is simple to operate and robust. To ensure a "go" position all that is required is that the total of all information fed into the databank is correct and verified.

Graphite is procured in special large dust- proof bags, specially made for the company. It can be fed automatically into the mills. After primary milling it is vacuum extracted into similar bags, weighed, labelled samples being sent for QC testing, before the material of the identified bag is released for the next process stage.

Separate procedures operate in the high flammable materials shop in which bonded lubricant coatings are made, also some specialised products. Quality control is exercised throughout all production facilities.

Overseas production

As a result of the new production and control facilities, most processes from the company's wholly owned subsidiaries in Düsseldorf (Germany) and Paris (France) were transferred to the new Edmonton facilities.

However, specialised manufacture remains with subsidiaries. For instance, a new high- production sachet filling machine is in the process of being installed in Germany which can fill 45-50 sachets per minute.Diluting arrangements are in place in a number of countries, the London factory supplying the technology concentrate.

The future

Products are exported to over 50 countries, headed by Germany, France and Japan. The range of products manufactured compete technically with the best. Some products, e.g. colloidal molybdenum disulphide, have been shown by independent laboratories to be the world's best. The company looks to the future with confidence to fulfil its role to increase the competitiveness of the users of its materials and to offer them even better and more advanced products in the years to come.

Note

1 Under RAC supervision, a Ford car that had used K S Paul's Moly-oil dispersions in the engine, was driven 100 circuits of the Crystal Palace circuit, after all the oil had been drained ­ no seizure, wear or scuffing was detected when the engine was stripped down.