Leading the Field: Building a World-Class R&D Base - An Investigation of the Lubricant Company's Dalian R&D Center (Part 2)

At the beginning of this year, the Dalian R&D Center of the Lubricant Company received good news: MAN B&W, one of the world's top two marine engine companies, issued certification for the "BOB process re-cylinder oil additive package" to the center.
In the eyes of the international lubricant community, the Dalian R&D Center is nothing less than a dark horse. The BOB process technology was invented only in 2008 by Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, and recognized by MAN B&W, and Mobil was the only company whose additive package had been certified. With this leap, the Dalian R&D Center has brought PetroChina's marine cylinder oil research level and BOB additive package technology alongside those of well-known international companies.
Targeting a first-class research institution
The Dalian R&D Center's marine oil technology, accumulated over many years, has become a shining calling card for PetroChina. Yet in fields such as hydraulic oils and turbine oils, the Dalian R&D Center also holds real market influence.
Last year, the Dalian R&D Center introduced a French T6H20C bench. There are only nine such benches worldwide, all in laboratories in developed countries in Europe and the United States, and this is the only one in China. Huang Shengjun, director of the evaluation center, explained: "The purpose of bringing it in is to achieve a breakthrough in high-quality hydraulic oil additive technology."
At present, the Dalian R&D Center's laboratory has seven hydraulic oil evaluation benches, the most complete set in China. With the establishment of three benches including the T6H20C and the Komatsu bench, PetroChina's level of hydraulic oil evaluation facilities has joined the international advanced ranks.
Previously, the turbine oils used by domestic nuclear power stations all came from abroad, and the Dalian R&D Center has rewritten that history. The turbine oil developed by the Dalian R&D Center has now been successfully applied at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station and is being extended to other nuclear power stations.
In a new two-story laboratory, two workers stand on ladders installing an 800 kW engine facility - the largest engine lubricant evaluation platform in China. As a landmark bench facility of the listed company's lubricant laboratory, it will undergo acceptance inspection this June, further strengthening Dalian R&D's hardware capability.
In 2009, the Dalian R&D Center established the Institute of New Materials and Additives. Its director, Dr. Zhang Dongheng, said the research areas include upgrading the performance and functional compounding of existing additives, rare earth metal new materials, new lubrication and friction technologies, and fundamental research on lubricant base stocks. Zhai Yuekui, head of the Dalian R&D Center, explained it this way: "This kind of research is time-consuming, resource-intensive and carries considerable risk, but an international research institution must undertake it. Our goal is to build the Dalian R&D Center into a lubricant and additive research institution that is first-class in China and well recognized abroad."
Honors rightly belong here
Many people would not imagine that the most authoritative and professional lubricant technology and economics forum in China's lubricant field, recognized across the industry, is organized by the Information Institute, a second-level unit of the Dalian R&D Center. Through the annual conference, the Dalian R&D Center - and even the lubricant company - is able to maintain broad cooperation with the world's major additive companies and oil companies. Gao Hui, director of the Information Institute, told reporters: "The forum has been held for more than ten years. One third of the experts invited each year are well-known foreign experts in the lubricant field, making it a genuinely international forum."
This has a great deal to do with the Dalian R&D Center's long-standing openness in research. At present, the center maintains business cooperation with internationally renowned companies such as Lubrizol, Afton, Ciba and Rohmax; maintains regular technical exchanges and business contacts with more than 30 domestic and foreign universities and research institutes, including Dalian University of Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the SAIC Group Technical Center; and has jointly established laboratories with institutions including the Oil Research Institute of the General Logistics Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Sinotruk Technology Development Center and the U.S. Green Laboratory.
Openness has enabled the Dalian R&D Center to learn about the latest international technology trends and to understand precisely where it stands.
At the Dalian R&D Center, the most presentable buildings are the laboratories and the Kunlun School; the leaders' offices are temporary prefabricated panel buildings of the kind commonly seen on construction sites.
Several piston-pull inspections during the international shipboard trials happened to fall at awkward times - the first over the May Day holiday, the second over the National Day holiday. Some gave up their holidays, others gave up caring for their pregnant wives, and everyone saw it through.
Not long ago, when the group company selected advanced collectives, the lubricant company used an internal vote for democratic nomination. The Dalian R&D Center received the most votes among 21 departments and units, earning the honor that should rightfully belong to it.