OKS products ensure "smooth" maintenance and cost benefits

OMV: Europe's largest refinery undergoes "healthcare".

Raffinerie in Schwechat

It was a truly gigantic project: two furnaces, 56 towers, 388 containers, 406 heat exchangers, 1300 safety valves, 2400 measurement and control units, 2800 valves and fittings, 1700 fitters and service staff employed specifically for the task, nearly 800 engineers and a total capital expenditure of approx. 230 million Euro. These are the key data of the revision and expansion which the largest refinery owned by the Austrian mineral oil company OMV underwent in August this year. As the refinery site at Schwechat near Vienna was teeming with activity, the lubricant manufacturer OKS and its products were having their share in the business. Wherever screws need to be undone, flanges replaced, valves fitted, where all kinds of components must be protected against corrosion or degreased and cleaned, solutions by this company belonging to the Freudenberg Chemical Specialities Group are much in demand. This Munich-based company specialises in lubricants and other chemical engineering products for maintenance and repair, which they market primarily via technical distributors and mineral oil retailers.

It may seem surprising that with an investment sum of this order of magnitude anybody should be concerned about humble substances like lubricants or assembly pastes. In fact OMV regards these products as crucial elements for effective time management. Everyone knows that time is money. Hence the use of the right maintenance products is of major importance. They ensure, for instance, that screws can be undone easily and tightened again in compliance with all relevant safety standards.

Robert Pappenberger, engineer at OMV, explains: "In our refinery, we have roughly 150,000 screw joints. Any one of them that doesn't come off smoothly, or can't be retightened with ease, poses a snag to other operations, costing a lot of time and money. Furthermore, revision intervals have been extended from three to six years. Of course we want to make sure that joints can be undone without difficulty even after this longer period."

OMV's senior expert Michael Martin Grill adds: "OKS offers us support through highly qualified technical distributors. Our suppliers all but live in our refinery. This proximity is a great benefit for us."

Another aspect is the right spectrum of product characteristics. Assembly pastes, for example, must be resistant to high temperature and compatible with the process medium, to name only the most basic prerequisites. All these requirements are met by products from OKS. By the end of August, the first revision and expansion of the refinery was completed within schedule. In this project, the unassuming lubricants, assembly pastes and cleaning agents have made a contribution that should not be underestimated.

OKS Spezialschmierstoffe GmbH
Triebstraße 9
D-80993 München
Tel.: +49 89 149892-0
Fax: +49 89 1419-219
E-Mail: info@oks-germany.com