Convention in Spain

I have the fortune to participate in a convention here in Spain with one of the biggest oil company’s in Scandinavia.

It’s all very well prepared and organised and you are proud to be a chosen partner to this company.

 

Today we open the fair where we showed our Bag n´ Box concept along with the CO2 compensated pre-wash.

Both concepts is right along with the hosts environmental valuations.

The success was huge and our Norwegian distributor has a lot of work taking care of all this prospects.

Product development

 is vital for progress in our daily work. We meet new competition, new demands, new markets, new regulations and our own ideas of new concept.

 

To cope with this our laboratory needs to priority our projects.

A project takes between 3-6 months to finalise and get ready for the market.

 

 

We follow a three step process:

• Laboratory tests as the first step
• Small field test as the second
• Full scale test as the third and last one

When this is done our purchasing department needs to look into the supplier if it’s a new one.

All the documentation around a new raw material is to be documented so we are sure that when the delivery trucks arrive we can check out if the contents are what it should be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In our producing process we take three quality samples to ensure traceability for least three years.

One of each raw material in the batch

One of the produced batch

The first container that leaves the filling machine up to 2,5 L bottles.

Our warehouse ship some time wrong products to our customers.  All that has been out our facility must be controlled by our laboratory.

 The returning gods is checked of our technicians before their released in to the warehouse again.

Our control system is rescuers demanding but it ensure our quality standards to you as a costumer.

Glass sealants

Good glass sealants for car is normally hard to get. The purpose is also some times not all that clear.

I drive around 50000 km a year and I think the safety is the issue.  The safety when you drive in rain and get a meeting car head flashes in your face and you for an instant of second loses the control.

done

As you could see the rain is going away from the windshield without the wipes. Only when you are directly behind another car the rain mist makes it a bit hard but as soon you are with a free highway the sight is clear.

That´s why I put the No1 Glassguard 51 on my cars front window.

It protect you from the blur and gives you a free sight!

It’s a two (2) component product that will give you a clear view for another 8 months.

Two bonus effects is that you don’t need the wipes when you are driving in rain over 70 km/h and up here in the permafrost it’s much easier to take away the ice on the windows when you have applied No1 Glassgurad 51.

Even some times there are no  ice on your car window when you neighbour is struggling with his car 06,45 in the morning.

Detailing in the economic crises

I was in Gothenburg, Sweden and attended in a car detailing class on Master level in Volvo Car Corporations own facility.

Volvo is launching a car detailing education for all Volvo whole sellers around the Nordic countries with Lahegas detailing line No1.

The classes is divided in two different levels, Basic and Master. It’s a two days class on each level. Theory and practice is equal important for a good en result

 

 

Here is the class student taking care of a deep scratch with spot water grinding and foam polishing as a final step.

 

 

 

 

Business in selling new cars is less in this economic crises and Volvo was determine to get new business to cover the lack of new car selling. They saw this business case as one of the most interesting.

 Normally their whole sellers out sourced this kind of business to local detailing centres. But now they decided to take that business by them self.

 

 

No wool pads in Sweden just foam in different colours with different hardness.

 

 

 

 

 

We are currently working with the Swedish Volvo whole sellers. Next are Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Carwash in Netherlands

I had the opportunity to visit some car washes in Holland and Belgium last week. I was on a business trip and schedule some visits. 

There wear two major differences from our Scandinavian way of wash a car in a roll-over machine.

Manual prewash

This guy was standing in the queue to the car wash and prewashed all cars first with high pressure then a brush.

Nylon brushes

Then the car moved in to the carwash and the  roll-over machine was equipped with nylon brushes! Today most of the EC market is using carlite brushes. Soft foam, similar to sponges, but in stripes. Not so aggressive to the paint finish as the nylon can be.

Spring has arrived to south of Sweden. Here is a photo of rapeseed on a field outside of my hometown.

Nice to know that summer is on it’s way.

Oil-separator

 

is a topic in many countries were the government is focused to avoid to much oil in the waste water from car washes.

I was at a meeting with one of the big player in car wash in our region. They have invest substantially in building new and improved oil separators but still there are car washes were they do not full fill the regulations.

The conclusion was that it has to be the chemicals.

I stated the difference between detergent and detergent.

Alkaline, petroleum and micro emulsions are all called detergents but they are totally different if you see them in a strict chemical point of view.

They also react differently in the oil separator, no questions about that. Micro emulsions are the biggest threat. Petroleum based detergents with emulsifiers is second then the ones without emulsifiers. Alkaline is the best from this  point of view.

Petroleum based detergents without emulsifiers has a big problem to penetrate the water film that is very common on cars in winter time.

We have added an additive to the detergent on the right side so it can penetrate the water film on the car so it will react and solve the contamination, read asphalt and tar, on the surface in a efficient way.

Our laboratory did a short film and the left detergent is a normal petrolium based with emulsifiers and the detergent to the right is without.

done

Some water is added first then the two different petrolium based detergents. The difference in speed of seperation between the two is huge.

 Herobiol Flash is the name of this new imporved product, to the right in the film, that could help many carwashes who has problem with the outgoing wastewater.

Foam or wool pads?

Thats the question that many detailer is keep asking them.

Buffing with wool pad is a faster and cooler way to take away scratches and imperfection in the paint. But on the other hand if the paint is a bit soft or sensitive the wool could make your day a bit sour.

Foam is the most common in Scandinavia if we talking detailing on the aftermarket. But to remove scratches you need compounds and the heat from the friction between the pad and the paint. If you are not educated in this you could create a lot of holograms and swirls from you buffer.

On top of that the different and constantly change of paints makes it not easier.

The development of a foam that cuts fast and efficient without leaving swirls, if right handed, is a top priority for us manufactures.

There is some blended pads with both foam and wool but the are not that common, not were I have been.

The technique is a key issue. If you angel the pad towards the paint you always should go over it flat before you leave. Clean the pad frequently. Use clay before you start to prevent hologram is also a common way.

Lahega has launched a new 165 mm wide foam pad with a new  foam technique that cuts well and leaves a minimum of holograms. This pad comes in two different styles. Orange for medium cutting and black as a swirl remover.

Good luck!

Education

Education is the key to success in many ways

But the change of detailing workers in different garages is a big problem.

As  managers all over world putting money in different educations and then two weeks later the detailer looses interest and move on to another job.

Today’s paints and all problem around detailing  is a big problem because the customer expect a good result worth the money he is paying.

One help with this is a new two headed orbital polishing machine. It’s look like the old Cyclo but is more variable in different tasks it could perform.

 

done

This machine together with special designed foam pads will manage detailing without making swirls and holograms on dark and sensitive paints.

Two different products No1 Fastcut 13 with an orange foam pad and No1 Finishcut 18 with a black foam pad could save your company a lot of work.

Last week I was educated 13 Norwegians in detailing and some of them hadn’t hold a polisher in there hands before.

We worked on a black BMW with this tool and did some good results.

If they had used a single rotating machine the had for sure done some good swirls and holograms in the paint that would given me a some hard work to take away .

Strange looking keypad in Denmark

The other day I was working in Denmark. When I stopped at Statoil to refuel, I became a little nervous, because my tank card did not work.
I was sure that it was going to work in Denmark, but no…
The card-reader accepted the card, but said the code was wrong, even though I entered it correctly, I thought.
After the second attempt, I looked closer at the numbers where you key in the code.
The figures were not in the same way in which I am used to. The pattern was on the keypad was for me in the wrong way.

In Sweden all numeric keypads which I know of starts with the number 1 on top left and ends with number 9 bottom right. (ATMs, tank machines, alarms, laptops, mobile phones etc.)

What does it look like in other countries?

Fantastic

new product from our laboratory.

Do you want to to wash your car, Not!!!!

Then this i something for you!

Well I have to show of a bit and let you see a fairly new product that could put some of us out of business….

This new product is named No1 Surftec 68 and is bottled in a aerosol can. Just spray and let it dry!

Then it will protect and give a self cleaning water repellent surface.

I drove 2500 km before I took this photo in Norway with Scandinavian winter climate!

Half of my rare side is done and the other is not. You have to figure out which half…;))