Somora sales staff have been given a unique insight into increasing specialisation in the vehicle lubricants sector at a special training day given by Jacco Nijhuis and Tom Bruggeman of premium lubricants supplier Kroon oil.

The Dutch manufacturer, Kroon, is a long established household name in oil in the Netherlands and is increasingly the choice of garages seeking guaranteed quality, manufacturer spec oils in Ireland. It offers a broad range of oils for all applications and is also renowned for its innovative packaging developments such as bag in box and full colour drums. The company’s high spec oils and impressive list of manufacturer approvals are fully detailed on its acclaimed website at www.kroon-oil.com

The training focused on how modern engines require a precise, increasingly low viscosity, oil specification to match their needs and how an oil specification API, ACEA or manufacturer specification gives guidance as to whether it is suitable for use in an engine.

Alarmingly one of the findings of research by Kroon on some competitor oil specification claims, was that certain oil suppliers claim to have oil products that according to industry body, ATIEL, have conflicting combined ACEA Category performance claims. For example it is not technically possible for one oil to meet A3, B4 and C3 categories, so where an oil supplier states this, the claim must be false.

Kroon say that there are numerous examples of products with ACEA category combination claims that are either not technically possible or are highly unlikely due to minimal overlap in physical and chemical properties required for that combination of claims. A useful guide to possible and conflicting ACEA categories appears on the in the oil sequences section under industry info at www.atiel.org.

The message from the Kroon training at Somora is that both garages and factors should not always take oil spec claims at face value and need to be confident in the quality of oil that they use or supply. Kroon says the best way to do this is to choose oils that have been tested and officially approved by vehicle manufacturers for use in their engines.