VLS marks ten-year milestone
Mike Bewsey, chairman of the Verification of Lubricant Specifications (VLS), looks back on a decade of upholding standards in the lubricants industry
In 2013, a clear issue arose in the UK lubricants industry. Reputable lubricant producers witnessed products being promoted in the marketplace with unrealistic claims. Market standards like the ACEA specifications did exist, but no one was policing them. This disadvantaged responsible manufacturers and put end users at risk of buying products that couldn’t deliver what was claimed.
A few lubricant companies had tried approaching UK Trading Standards about the issues, but Trading Standards didn’t have the expertise, knowledge or resources to investigate or take action. The United Kingdom Lubricants Association (UKLA) realised there was an issue and stepped in to take action by supporting the lubricants market.
This wasn’t about naming and shaming companies but about encouraging compliance through better education – reaching out to them to see if they needed help understanding the complex lubricants market they were working in that would ensure a level playing field for all participants.
Ultimately, UKLA realised that those best qualified to challenge and educate these companies were the reputable lubricants manufacturers themselves. So a new organisation was created as a subsidiary of UKLA – the Verification of Lubricant Specifications (UK) Ltd, or simply VLS.
In the first few years, VLS dealt with a large number of cases that resolved long-standing performance claims as the market adjusted to becoming more open and more accountable. The very first case was a complaint about the low temperature properties of an automotive gear oil. It claimed to be viable in temperatures down as low as minus 40 degrees centigrade, but on testing, it turned solid at minus 15 °C.
The company concerned argued that the UK’s temperature never reached minus 40°C, so the product was still suitable for use. That wasn’t the point. A specification cannot be claimed if a product cannot meet it, as it is misleading the end user.
By 2020, VLS had gone full circle on its beginnings and entered into a Primary Authority partnership with Trading Standards.Having worked on several cases together, Trading Standards could see that VLS was bringing value to the marketplace and could help raise standards for consumers and encourage greater compliance.
Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards agreed to provide tailored advice and guidance for VLS and its members to help them remain compliant with relevant regulations and legislation and support VLS in escalating any cases to local Trading Standards authorities that proved problematic in resolving.
In total, VLS has investigated 87 cases over the past ten years, including complaints against automotive engine oils for passenger and commercial vehicles, gear oils and even marine and industrial products. Non-compliance with stated specifications is the most frequent cause of complaint.
In several cases, VLS has investigated products which have been found to be claiming mutually exclusive claims due to the chemical properties required. Equally, cases have investigated companies using the term ‘manufacturer approved’ for which no evidence could be found or making generalised claims for which no substantiation was provided. It is vital that any end user can be confident that a product can deliver what it claims and is suitable for use in any given application.
The past decade has seen immense change in the lubricants industry, including the trend towards lower viscosity fluids, the 2022 ACEA Oil Sequences for Heavy-Duty Engines and the introduction of EV fluids. An acceleration of change is coming, driven by the impending ban on new petrol and diesel van sales from 2035 and heavy goods vehicle sales from 2040.
We’re already seeing the impact of electrification in the marketplace, but also the challenges of it. We could be facing shortages of cobalt and lithium, some of the vital components of batteries, and there are serious question marks over the lifespan and disposal of redundant vehicle batteries. As a result, we’re seeing the widening options regarding zero emissions.
JCB has already put hydrogen combustion into action, with its hydrogen combustion engine fitted and working in multiple pieces of equipment and pre-production engines rolling off a dedicated production line at the JCB Power Systems factory in Derbyshire, UK.
The only output from the exhaust is steam which is great for the environment. But with more water created than petrol or diesel engines, specialist oils must be developed to perform under those conditions and minimise water contamination risk.
The EU has already said they will allow synthetic fuels in ICE after the ban in 2035, and we expect the UK to follow suit. Synthetic fuels are expensive, but here in the UK, fuel costs have risen rapidly post the war in Ukraine, so the change to synthetic is now less of a stretch than it was.
Wherever the market goes, VLS’s core purpose will remain the same as it has always been: to uphold standards in the lubricants marketplace while protecting and educating end users. Though VLS has made significant progress in raising industry standards over the past ten years, our guidance will be more critical than ever in the years ahead.
