A Myriad of Factors Affect the End Cost of DEF In 2010, the EPA created a mandate that all medium and heavy duty vehicles were required to reduce emissions (most notably NOx) by incorporating diesel exhaust fluid, or DEF. DEF is a non-hazardous solution consisting of a 32.5% urea and... Read More +
The Importance of Properly Disposing of Used Oil and Grease In 1842, Julius Robert Mayer, a German physician, chemist and physicist and one of the founders of thermodynamics, developed the Law of Conservation of Energy, which suggests that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it can only be transformed... Read More +
Wanna Save Some Cash – Turn Off Your Engine Funny how people will search high and low for a screamin’ deal or a bargain, even braving the gauntlet of Black Friday at Walmart and then overlook one of the simplest money saving tactics available – turning off their engines instead... Read More +
Des-Case – Optimal Protection Against Moisture and Debris Contamination control is a reality when you are dealing with products that can make or break the health and productivity of costly equipment. At SCL, we take contamination seriously, which is why we have partnered with Des-Case – an industry leader in... Read More +
The Shipping Industry Faces a Major Environmental Overhaul It has been estimated that nearly 90% of the goods and services transported around the planet are moved via ocean freight. China is currently the United State’s largest trade partner, with a total of $635.4 billion exchanged for both imports and exports... Read More +
The Benefits and Problems of Wind Energy Technology Harnessing the wind is an ancient technological practice, first employed by maritime peoples who captured it’s force in their sails to propel them across vast stretches of ocean. According to the Wind Energy Foundation, “Wind technology propelled boats along the Nile River as... Read More +
How OPEC Impacts the Cost of US Goods and Services American mathematician, meteorologist and the pioneer of chaos theory, Edward Lorenz coined the phrase the “butterfly effect” in 1969, which suggests that small perturbations, changes and causes in one location may have large effects and impacts in an entirely different... Read More +
Weather Affects Traffic Accidents and Driving Behavior With the benefits of rain comes a change in driving patterns and unfortunately, more traffic accidents. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), “Between the years of 2004-2013, there were 573,784 crashes, 228,196 people injured, and 2,732 people killed in car crashes... Read More +
When California Is On Fire the Economy Feels the Burn The origin of the name California can be traced back to a handful of theories, including a Spanish translation, caliente horno, meaning “hot furnace;” an indigenous word meaning “high hill;” and most commonly recognized, from the 16th century novel Las Sergas... Read More +
How to Remain Compliant with Proposition 65 If you’re a Californian, you are no doubt familiar with the high regulatory nature of the state. In 2016, a new regulation was adopted to update warning requirements for consumer products sold to customers in California that are known to contain certain harmful... Read More +
Extremely Long DMV Lines in California Have Driver’s Frustrated Have you been to the DMV lately? If not, consider yourself lucky, and also consider yourself forewarned. Lines are longer than ever, reinforcing the Department of Motor Vehicle’s reputation as a black hole where operations move at a glacial pace. The... Read More +
President Trump’s Historic Weakening of Fuel Economy Standards This summer, the Trump administration began taking steps to roll out what is being referred to as a “historic” weakening of fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles and the trucking industry. Besides the national implications of such an effort, the President also... Read More +
Are You Properly Storing and Handling Your Grease? Grease doesn’t get as much attention as other types of lubricant products, but it can in fact be impacted by fluctuations in temperature and should be stored and handled in a way that maintains its chemical integrity. In this article we spoke... Read More +
China Recently Placed 25% Oil Tariffs on U.S. Oil Products In response the the $16 billion in tariffs that President Donald Trump placed on Chinese imports, the People’s Republic is responding with a 25% tariff to be placed on U.S. goods – most notably, oil tariffs. Despite talks between U.S.... Read More +
Protect Your Physical Assets with Reliability-Centered Maintenance Programs Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) is an engineering framework that allows for the creation of a complete maintenance regimen for your physical assets to understand the overall level of risk being managed by an organization. The idea of Reliability-Centered Maintenance Programs has been around since the... Read More +
Look for Our “Leer en Español” Links on All Future Posts To serve all of our customers and the many industries that we cater to in the best manner possible, moving forward SCL will be publishing articles in our “Expert Insight” section of our Blog translated into Spanish as well as... Read More +
Massive Driver Shortages in the Trucking Industry According to a report by Axios, there are many industries in the United States that are having a tough time filling critical employment roles, such as construction workers, farmers, truck drivers and first responders. Despite good pay and benefits, there is a giant... Read More +
Uber Self-Driving Trucks Division is No Longer In March of this year we wrote an Expert Insight piece on the rise of Uber Freight and their desire to expand the cutting edge use of autonomous vehicle technology. It was believed that this would drastically disrupt the trucking industry, and was... Read More +
The New API SN PLUS Formulation and Why You Should Care When it comes to turbocharged engines, it’s all about performance, which is why automakers are spearheading the newest supplemental motor oil specification – API SN PLUS – to protect against Low-Speed-Pre-Ignition (LSPI) – a condition found within Turbocharged Gasoline... Read More +
A Clean Sump Prevents Bacterial and Fungal Growth in Coolant When it comes to machining, maintaining sump chemistry through sump tank management is essential to the health and well-being of employees, the protection of expensive equipment and the integrity of manufactured products. A sump basin and associated pump are used... Read More +
Food Grade Lubrication – Not All Products Are Created Equal When dealing with manufacturing or packaging products that require food grade lubrication, it is essential to be conscious of what greases, degreasers, cleaners, seamers, etc that you may be using in your warehouse or facility because public health and safety... Read More +
Innovative and Sustainable Fluid Solutions For some of the world’s most reputable names and brands – Rolls Royce, NASA, and Boeing – only the best will do, which is why they choose Houghton International fluid technology to meet their industrial needs. Based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Houghton is involved with the... Read More +
How Does Oil Actually Affect Your Bottom Line? With the ever increasing cost of running a business, companies will do anything to increase savings to their bottom line. When the cost of lubricants goes up – and it will – fleet managers often think that by changing their oil provider... Read More +
Nations Around the World Are Working Together to Minimize the Effects of Carbon Emissions What is Global Decarbonization Simply put, decarbonization is the removal of carbon from a system… whether that be your engine or the atmosphere. Why does this matter? Many scientists, economists, politicians and citizens around the world... Read More +
Many Applications Require Biobased Lubricants What Are Biodegradable Lubricants Biodegradable lubricants have molecular structures with the capacity to degrade biologically over time thru the processes of bacterial decomposition or by the enzymatic biodegradation of other living organisms such as yeast, protozoans and fungi. These biodegradable bases are often derived from... Read More +
Will Your Team be Prepared for an OSHA Review? As a business owner or manager, understanding that your business is subject to both routine and unexpected OSHA inspections is important, and having a plan in place to keep your team prepared will support you in avoiding costly fines. OSHA stands... Read More +
Keep Your Facility Compliant What is Title 22 Title 22, part 66265.192 and 66265.193 are 2 parts of an official code of regulation within the state of California that outlines specific parameters for properly labeling, storing and removing used oil and oil filters. It is an assessment of existing tanks... Read More +
Oil Marketers Brace Themselves for Lubricant Price Increases Recently we received notification from some of our major and private label oil manufacturers that a 3rd round of lubricant price increases for finished lubricants are coming, beginning July and August of 2018. Notifications continue to trickle in, but as of... Read More +
Skimmer Fraud on the Rise at California Cardlock Stations An industry alert recently submitted by the California Independent Oil Marketers Association (CIOMA) highlighted a rising trend in skimmer fraud at Cardlock terminals across California. As we explored in a previous SCL Expert Insight post, skimmers are “small card readers installed within... Read More +
Mobil-branded Delvac 1300 Super 15W-40 Under Fire Historically, major players in the Big Oil arena have refrained from taking shots at one another, maintaining a relatively cordial level of competition. But recently two industry giants took aim at one another – Shell and ExxonMobil – over heavy duty diesel engine... Read More +
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