Keystone Lubricants Div., Elf Lubricants North America, Inc.
Over the decades, Keystone has been in the forefront of lubricating oil and grease technology. Around the turn of the century, petroleum oils were the most common lubricants used. Greases were not as popular because application was difficult. Instead, elaborate systems were used to force oil through machinery.
Early on, Keystone became an advocate of using grease as demonstrated by its 1908 booklet "Grease Vs Oil". This was used to promote use of a grease cup instead of the forced feed oil systems most plants used then. The grease cup was an invention of Keystone's that year. Up through the 1920s, the company designed and marketed not just lubricants, but entire systems to make it easier to apply greases accurately.
In 1911, Keystone introduced ship launching greases called "Basecoat and Slipcoat". This market took on great importance during World War II, when shipbuilding was of major importance. U.S. Navy battleships such as the Alabama, North Carolina, and Missouri were all launched using Keystone products. Today, nuclear powered submarines are launched with the modem version of these historic lubricant products.
In 1925, Keystone registered the trade name "Nevastane®" to denote a family of lubricants manufactured from FDA acceptable ingredients and qualified by the USDA for incidental food contact. Innovation continued when a new anti-wear grease was introduced in 1983 to handle applications where conventional food grade lubricants required frequent application or do not adequately prevent bearing wear.
In 1970, a new aluminum complex grease line, Zeniplex®, was developed and marketed to U.S. Industry. This line of three grades has been able to reduce bearing wear and failure by reason of its resistance to squeeze out, ability to resist moisture, and heat even to 425 degrees F.
In 1971, Keystone introduced a line of synthetic diester based fluids called "KSL®" for use in air compressors, drives, bearings and chains. A significant number of compressor manufacturers in the U.S. approve and sanction the KSL®" lubricants.
Recipient of the 1977 American Supply & Machinery Manufactures' Association, Inc., "American Eagle" award. The American Eagle award is presented to a company that best demonstrates the overall excellence to employees, community, educational institutions, government and the environment the benefits of our Free Enterprise System.
Keystone is still developing new products. In 1983, a new synthetic lubricant based on polyalphaolefin was released for the Food Industry. The USDA has accepted this new product for use in Federally inspected meat and poultry plants and contains FDA acceptable ingredients. The product is designated as KSL® 800, and is suitable for rotary screws and vane air compressors. Additionally, a new semi-synthetic was developed in 1990 for food machinery use called Nevastane® 20AW. Nevastane® 20AW was selected by Plant Engineering Magazine as a finalist in their "1990 Product Of The Year Award" contest and received "Honorable Mention" in their January 1991 issue.
In 1993, Keystone introduced "SafeGard®". SafeGard® is an innovative "industrial first", continuous spray that is an environmentally sound non-aerosol spray delivery system. SafeGard® has no propellants, is non-flammable, uses no ozone-depleting gases or solvents and is not a pump sprayer. SafeGard® can also be sprayed upside down where standard aerosol can not. SafeGard® is not restricted by D.O.T. for ground or air transportation. SafeGard® was selected by Plant Engineering Magazine as a finalist in their "1993 Product of The Year" award contest and received the Silver Award in May of 1994. Lubricants World magazine announced in the February 1994 issue that SafeGard® was the recipient of their annual "Product of The Year" award.
Today, the Keystone product line contains more than twenty grease and hundreds of fluid lubricant formulations for everything from metalworking to marine environments, for applications including food machinery to hydraulics and power transmission to textile and mining equipment.
Keystone serves its customers with job matched packaging that includes cartridges, pints, gallons, pails, kegs, drums and SafeGard® spray containers.
Since 1990, Keystone Lubricants Division of Elf Lubricants North America, Inc. Has been a branch of Elf Aquitaine, a multinational hydrocarbon, chemical and pharmaceutical producer.
In 1999 Elf Aquitaine was merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf, the worlds 4th largest oil producing and marketing company with annual revenues of $80 billion and with total employment worldwide of 130,0000 highly skilled individuals.
Today Keystone Lubricant products are marketed throughout the world.