VLS Update Mike Bewsey, Chairman, VLS
Product quality surveys of engine oils have become a core part of ATIEL’s Quality Management Committee’s initiatives. They check the compliance of engine oils making claims against the ACEA engine oil sequences in the global marketplace to encourage and strengthen compliance with quality standards required under the European Engine Lubricants Quality Management System (EELQMS) which underpins the ACEA European Oil Sequences.
The objective is to test engine lubricants that are being marketed by signatories of the EELQMS Marketers’ Letter of Conformance (LoC) for compliance against the ACEA engine oil sequences that are being claimed. Annual sampling and testing of products are carried out by an independent test laboratory that purchases the oils from retail outlets and distributors and then tests the oils against the chemical and physical bench test requirements for the ACEA specification(s) being claimed.
ATIEL first started testing products for conformity back in 2014, but testing was stepped up three years later. Today, a sample mix, determined based on selection criteria developed in consultation with the Technical Experts Committee, is purchased in various countries. The aim is that over three years at least three products are checked for each LoC signatory. The products are tested, and results are reported back to the manufacturers involved and the wider industry.
The latest bulletin, no 4- 18 November 2022 distributed to LoC signatories, reported that several failures had been found on products placed on the market. Most failures were due to incompatible combined claims ACEA engine oil sequences claims, such as products claiming both A3/B4 with C3 indicating that the product is suitable for vehicles both with and without exhaust after-treatment devices like catalytic converters (cat) and diesel particulate filters (dpf). This is not possible where an engine oil contains a high level of Sulphated Ash, Phosphorous and Sulphur (SAPS) which could interfere with a cat or dpf.
46 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.173 FEBRUARY 2023
Other failures included Total Base Number, NOACK volatility or evaporation, High Temperature/High Shear, Mini Rotary Viscometer or MRV indicating viscometrics, and Cold Crank Simulator viscosity or CCS being outside of the required limits for the specifications being claimed.
The report uses case studies to highlight that if manufacturers wish to claim more than one of the ACEA sequences A3/B3, A3/B4, A5/B5, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, E4, E6, E7, E9 categories on the same label, each of them should be separated by a comma. For example, “A3/B3/E7” is not a valid multiple categories claim, whilst “A3/B3, E7” would be valid. Correct punctuation is vital to ensure a clear and consistent message about the exact specification the product is claiming to be suitable for.
In the case of blended oil having one or more physical and/or chemical parameters that are out of specification, ATIEL advises that non-compliant oil production batches should be withdrawn from the market. The manufacturer should contact their technology supplier, and check the formulation meets all the stated requirements in a laboratory scale blend before commencing further production.
This latest EELQMS report comes as no surprise and absolutely mirrors VLS’s own findings. The VLS Technical Review Panel continues to investigate cases of products making incompatible or misleading claims about the specifications that they meet. The benefit of VLS is that our scope allows us to go further and delve deeper. Whilst SAIL, the ATIEL subsidiary responsible for administering the product quality survey, can only comment on ACEA specifications, VLS can investigate and offer guidance on OEM specifications as well as ACEA, API and any other manufacturer specifications and market standards and application claims lubricants producers and distributors are making. Our robust, impartial and assured investigations ensure that products are correctly marketed and really can deliver what they claim.
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