Quality Control- and What goes on in a lab

[novadude]

OK, guys... here is something that has been bothering me. We can sit here and obsess about ppm of moly, etc. in different brands of oil, and pick a brand that looks fantastic on paper. HOWEVER, how in the hell do we know we are getting the same thing from every bottle. For example, I would rather use an oil that has good specs and is consistent from batch to batch, instead of one that has great numbers on a VOA test, but no consistancy from bottle-to-bottle. Anyone know which company has a QC dept that is "a cut above the rest"? Just some food for thought. [ April 09, 2003, 09:26 PM: Message edited by: BOBISTHEOILGUY ]

 

[Steve S]

only a good guess would be Amsoil ,Redline and Schaeffers. They would be the major minors. [ April 09, 2003, 05:44 PM: Message edited by: Steve S ]

 

[BOBISTHEOILGUY]

Well, I think you have a valid point. This is one of the reasons I like Schaeffers so well. They do their own in house spot checks on the different products they produce with their own in house lab. For example, here they use a grease penetration tester for consistancy of their greases... Now, for those that are not aware on how oil is checked let me take a moment to show you a little about a lab, in this case schaeffers in house lab.. Here is what they do to check for viscosity... first there's a viscosometer tube, notice the two lines, I numbered them 1 and 2. Now, here is the actual setup where this tube is used... Notice the little bulb in his hand, what he does is takes a sample of the oil, places it into this tube, allows the oil to heat up in that bath to the 100deg C. After it is up to temp, he then puts that bulb on the small end of the tube and pulls a suction to bring it up past the #1 mark on the tube. Then he removes the bulb allowing the oil to drain back down. Now, once it hits the first(#1) mark, he starts a stopwatch, then as it hits the second mark(#2),he stops the watch. He does this 3 times for consistancy of measurement. Then once he is satisfied with the time, he has a conversion chart to convert it to centistrokes which then relates to visocity. This is the FTIR, Which basicly gives you the base oils condition. And then the ICP which looks at the wear metals.. Now you can see why this oil shows such high quality because of the QC procedures they use. [ April 09, 2003, 06:40 PM: Message edited by: BOBISTHEOILGUY ]

 

[Steve S]

I think the smaller oil companies cannot afford to make a mistake. Their pockets are not as deep as well as they are a specialty product and cater to a different clientel in a sense of the customer pays for a premium product . Not to say any of the better otc oils are bad but these are the best. I am sure the major oil companys test their products as well but due to their production and make profit at the comsumer expense stuff slips by.

 

[Andrew]

About a year ago I was buying my castrol GTX2 at Kmart. I used it because it was SL rated. I put it in the car. Only then did I realise that it was not SL (It was SG or SJ ... ) I went back to Kmart and checked. The one I had bought was not SL, even though everything was the same (packaging etc.) and the price was about the same. I thought it was a bit misleading and I always check now. [ April 09, 2003, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: Andrew ]

 

[BOBISTHEOILGUY]

Andrew, I don't think that's so much a qc issue for oil but a packaging problem. I think qc for an oil is more like watching the batches and insuring that each batch come out near the same. We all know it is impossible to ensure 100% the same but a % rate can be acceptable. In schaeffers lab, they pull samples from each batch # and test them in their in house lab. That's why they have batch #'s assigned to each so they can keep track of the tests and for what run they produced.

 

[MolaKule]

Yes, but what part does the little mouse play in QC as depicted in picture 4?

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by MolaKule: Yes, but what part does the little mouse play in QC as depicted in picture 4?

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He makes sure no cheese makes it into the bottles!

 

[OneQuartLow]

It's corporate espionage! One of Al's spies! I've heard of these but thought they were just dark rumors. As the story goes, the small, 1st generation nano-rodentbots rebelled and escaped from their MIT creators. They now form a dark society of spies and assassins who carry out nefarious deeds in exchange for shiny things and strings of bits. They're normally invisible to the eye but this one has been exposed by Bob's digital camera (typical infrared-sensitive CCD variety). Somebody get on the horn! If the rodentbot realizes he's been discovered it could be disastrous. They've sworn to never be captured alive, and will contaminate oil batches with dirty fur, or worse, their WOD*, the dreaded super-aged Limburger! *Weapon of Olfactory Disgust

 

[RichR]

I also had a surprise in Castrol.I had about a 1/4 inch of"gunk" on the bottom of one quart.Looks like melted carmel.Never had a problem in 20years of Castrol.I still have it in the garage in case somebody is interested.I guess something fell out of the mix. Rich

 

[mojo]

The best way to determine whether individuals companies have good quality control programs in place is to see whether they carry an ISO 9000 series certification. These standards cover quality assurance from the standpoint of development, manufacturing, final inspection, testing, to name a few. If you are not familiar with the ISO 9000 Quality Assurance series, go to http://isoeasy.org as that site gives the details for the standards and the regulations.

 

[mojo]

Sorry, that site should be http://www.isoeasy.org