- Kunal Marathe, Director – Marketing, Pratap Tex-Chem Pvt Ltd

Pratap Tex-Chem Pvt Ltd is engaged in providing a wide range of eco-friendly solutions in rust preventive oils, corrosion inhibitors, washing/degreasing chemicals, cutting oils, hydraulic oils, coolants, EDM fluids, carrier fluids, etc. These are marketed under the Lubeco brand. The company also specialises in offering tailor-made products based on customer’s inputs and its knowledge in the application field. Kunal Marathe, Director – Marketing, talks about the company and its products. Excerpts…

Corrosion is a major problem in industry. What are the Lubeco products available for surface treatment?

We have oil base, solvent base and water base rust preventive oils to prevent metal components from corrosion – Rustseal 44, Rustseal 55, Rustseal 77. If at all they corrode, then we have water base and neat rust removers to remove rust from the components and make them soluble – Supraclean-ND, Rust-O-Nil 1402. We have water base and solvent base cleaners to clean the surface of the components by removing oil, grease, dust, chips, etc., Supraclean M95, Supraclean M95 D, Supraclean M955, Supraclean M9550, Supraclean OR(E).

How effective are the rust removers and rust preventing oils in corrosion prevention?

The variety in rust preventives allows us to suggest suitable products for variety of applications. They provide excellent rust protection for their respective applications e.g. domestic supply, export or long in house storage. The products have been tested for corrosion prevention at SGS Lab for salt spray, cabinet humidity and film thickness tests. Rust removers are also designed keeping in mind two things – severity of rust and human skin issues. So while we have water base rust remover for light or superficial rust, we also have neat rust removers for hard or deep rust. But both the products are not acidic and are skin friendly.

What is the total range of Lubeco products for industry?

There are about 16 main product categories like water soluble cutting oils, hydraulic oils, rust preventives, neat cutting oils, stamping oils, drawing oils, EDM oils, cleaners, etc., and approximately 65 sub-products.

The company has a great emphasis on eco-friendly products. How green are Lubeco products?

We have collaboration with two companies – one each from UK and Germany – to get the most advanced technology in the industry. Our emphasis is to balance the performance and environment. So many products are free from added hazardous chemicals like bactericide, chlorine, sulphur, phosphorus, nitrites, phenol, etc or many products reduce power consumption and save electricity or some products reduce the use of oils thereby enabling the saving of crude stocks, etc.

You have active collaboration with global companies. What is the nature of this collaboration? What are the manufacturing and testing facilities available?

We have a technical collaboration with our global partner companies. They provide us the technology in chemicals and additives required for that technology. We have a manufacturing facility with a capacity of approximately 500 tonnes per month and our own QC, R&D and Microbiology Lab and our collaborators also have their respective labs wherein we can get all the necessary analytical, microbiological and product development tests done. We also have tie ups with some customers to carry out on-field tests to cross check the lab results.

India is a large country. How widespread is your sales network?

We deal directly with local, i.e., Pune customers and have dealer network across India, mostly in West, North and South. We have dealers in Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Sangli, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Delhi NCR, Punjab and Rajasthan.

What about exports?

We are mainly catering to domestic customers but also doing exports to the Philippines, UAE, Bangladesh, Oman and some other countries.

How is the Make in India initiative likely to impact your operation?

If at all it is going to, then it is going to impact us in a positive way. Because of this initiative by our honourable PM, the global perspective about Indian manufacturers has changed and they are more positive about the quality of products manufactured by Indian companies. In addition, a lot of global companies are ready to invest through Indian partners and that will also help us in expanding our scope.