Lubezine Volume 8 * NOVEMBER 2013 - JANUARY 2014 | Page 4

Turn to WearCheck opens lab in Mozambique Mitumba lubricants, an environmental catastrophy P.10 Conversations on Viscometrics P.24 WWW.LUBESAFRICA.COM VO L .8 • NOVEMB ER 201 3-JANUARY 2014 P.5 EDITOR’SDESK VOL 8 • NOV EMB ER 201 3-JA NUA RY 2014 EDITORIAL MAIN FEATURE OIL ANALYSIS IN TRANSFORMER MAINTENANCE November 2013-January 2014 | LUBEZINE MAGAZINE 1 PLUS: WEARCHECK OPENS LAB IN MOZAMBIQUE P.5 Publisher: Lubes Africa Ltd Editor: Nyakundi Nyagaka Design & Layout: Andrew Muchira Contributors: Samuel Macharia James Wakiru Joseph Ndung’u Mohamed Baraka Crispin Mbogo Richard Ndaka Mehrdad Vajedi Neil Robinson Photography: Bettercom Media services Lubezine library Art Direction: Zeus Media Ltd [email protected] Advertising & Subscription: [email protected] www.lubesafrica.com Subscriptions: Lubezine is free to qualified subscribers who are involved in the lubricants industry as manufacturer’s end-users, marketers and suppliers to the oil industry. Lubezine is a quarterly publication of Lubes Africa Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced or transmitted in any form including photocopy or any storage and retrieval system without prior written permission from the publishers. 2 Towards Condition-based Maintenance W elcome to our first copy of Lubezine for the year 2014. Our team wishes you a prosperous year ahead as we usher in another exciting year in which we will bring you incisive and comprehensive lube reports, analyses and technology updates, particularly those affecting the African continent. Maintenance trends are changing globally, with maintenance programs now shifting from the so-called run-to-failure and preventive maintenance to condition-based maintenance. The condition-based scheme allows maintenance personnel to carefully schedule plant shutdown and address the specific machinery problems that had, prior to the shutdown, been detected via CBM techniques. As far as lubricants and lubrication is concerned, the key condition-based maintenance technique commonly used is oil analysis. In this edition, we elaborate in detail how this technique fits seamlessly into the overall CBM program. We have particularly focused on how this technique is applicable to transformer maintenance in our cover article. Our regular contributor, Mr. Baraka, excites an interesting debate on the environmental impact of using of recycled base oils in the formulation of lubricants. His aptly titled ‘Mitumba’ (Second Hand) lubricants make for a both insightful and interesting read. Our Last Word column provides a Kenyan sales and marketing executive’s perspective on marketing lubricants. Sales executives are always at the front end of any business as Mr. Ndaka argues in his article. Tanzania is one of the most important lubricants market in the East African region. We have reports of the steps being undertaken by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) in regulating that market. Counterfeit lubricants continue to hurt lubricants business in many African countries. But with such stringent steps as those taken by TBS, this malpractice can be controlled. We gratefully thank our loyal advertisers, professional contributors, including our 3,000-plus strong readership outreach. Thanks to your unwavering support, Lubezine Magazine continues to be the premier source of lube information in the region. Maintenance trends are changing globally, with maintenance programs now shifting from the so-called run-to-failure and preventive maintenance to condition-based maintenance. . Welcome Joseph Ndung’u LUB i%9