Application Research Laboratory (ARL)

Applications Research Laboratory (ARL)

The R&D Centre of SBU: Greases & Lubricants, named as Applications Research Laboratory is located at Kolkata and was established in 1981. It is well equipped with state-of-the-art test rigs / instruments and backed by highly qualified scientists and engineers. The R&D Centre is recognised since 1984 by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India. The major thrust areas for R&D have been high performance and speciality products for niche markets, with focus on biodegradable and eco-friendly lubricants. The R&D Centre is also involved in collaborative research with leading research organizations and institutes.

The modernized R&D centre and the R&D efforts are being directed towards maintaining technological and cost leadership which leads to customer satisfaction through:

Continuous upgradation of the products and processes in tune with the technological advancement to reduce cost of production and to deliver enhanced product performance.
Development of new high performance and speciality greases and lubricants with a thrust on lubricants for automotive sector.
Emphasis on products specific to both industrial and automotive OEMs.
Thrust on environment friendly, bio-degradable and energy efficient nano lubricants for future market requirements.
Introduction of new cost-effective grease as an alternative replacement of most popular high performance lithium grease due to fluctuating prices of lithium hydroxide.

The R&D projects were directed towards development of high performance grease for suspension bearings and synthetic gear case oil for Indian Railway for both diesel and electrical locomotives, high performance grease for overhead Aluminium Electrical Conductors, fire resistant grease for steel plants, long life multipurpose grease for automotive sectors, long life high temperature wheel bearing grease for auto OEM, heavy duty diesel engine oil (CI4 Plus) & CK4 for auto OEM, ‘Keep Clean’ hydraulic oil for industrial OEM, high performance cutting oils, high performance oils for Aluminium wire drawing and machining operations, rust preventive oils for steel tubes and pipes, high performance cold rolling oils for mild and stainless steel, bio-degradable engine oil and transmission oil for automotive sectors, development of infrastructure for in-house Ester Synthesis.

R&D efforts in lubricants has helped the Company to increase the business horizon by expanding the product basket with high performance niche lubricants for automotive and industrial applications. Quite a few new products have been introduced into the product range of metal working fluids and rust preventive oils. Products and processes developed through in-house R&D have been internally absorbed by the manufacturing units for commercialization. ARL has fifteen patents to its credit and many research papers were presented in Conferences.