A Quality Move: Thomas Roycroft Earns Promotion To Laboratory Manager
Thomas Roycroft has recently been promoted to Laboratory Manager, meaning he now leads the team responsible for maintaining the high quality of Morris Lubricant’s products.
Thomas feels honoured and excited to take on the role, stating “It’s a privilege to work with such an amazing team, and I’m looking forward to supporting them as we continue to deliver the high standards Morris Lubricants is known for.”
He has been a part of the Morris Lubricants’ team for 8 years now, although the lab has changed significantly in that time. Thomas continues “The company has invested in new laboratory equipment as well as providing some level of automation to existing ones. This helps us increase our sampling capacity, as well as making sure Morris Lubricants products are always up to date with the latest industry requirements.”
The laboratory takes steps to ensure every product meets Morris Lubricant’s quality expectations, as Thomas explains. “We work with industry leading suppliers for all the raw materials that we use in our lubricants. Once we start the blending process it goes through a series of quality control tests to make sure we’re happy and conforming to industry standards before it gets transferred into storage. We also carry out a final check on filling samples before packaging, helping ensure each product meets Morris Lubricants’ quality expectations from start to finish.”
The testing process that a product goes through before leaving the site is extremely rigorous, as Thomas explains. “When every sample arrives to the laboratory it gets booked in through our Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). This creates a unique ID which the individual sample is tied to. Once created, a workbook can be generated where a series of tests are carried out which is recorded and stored. By having everything electronically logged it allows us to refer to anything very easily and provides us with a great level of traceability from start to finish.”
This process gives confidence to customers as quality is checked at each key stage: raw materials, blended batches, and final filling samples. This means that every product is inspected throughout production before it reaches the customer.
The lab’s testing and analysis can directly help customers solve a problem, as Thomas outlines. “We retain samples from every batch, each with a unique ID linked to its test information and results. If a customer raises a query, we can review or retest the retained sample and, where needed, send it to a third party for verification. This gives customers clear feedback and reassurance that the lubrication is suitable for its intended application.”
Staying up to date with industry standards and testing methods is highly important to Thomas, as he explains how they achieve this. “We stay up to date through long-standing partnerships with leading suppliers, active memberships of the United Kingdom Lubricants Association (UKLA) and Verification of Lubricant Specifications (VLS), and use of the ASTM* Compass platform which provides access to the latest standard and test methods. These help us keep aligned and up to date with current industry standards and testing methods. Our laboratory equipment is therefore expansive to cover this.”
The range of equipment used includes HTHS (High Temperature High Shear) and MRV (Mini Rotary Viscometer) which measure the viscosity of engine oil at various temperatures. This involves a test at 150°C in the high shear conditions of a running engine, and at a low temperature to determine whether an oil can be pumped through an engine during very cold starts. Thomas and his team also verify the correct formulation and additive package for a product, and can identify any contamination, degradation or product conformity before the oil leaves the laboratory.
Morris Lubricants takes great pride in the development of its staff, seeing them take on new and exciting roles as they continue to grow. The development of our laboratory team is a key reason behind the continued quality of Morris Lubricants products, with their regular and rigorous testing ensuring our high standard is maintained both now and into the future.
*American Society for Testing and Materials