20 Minutes With Ralph Beard
Rachel Fowler, Associate Editor | TLT 20 Minutes September 2015
Functional Products’ director of corporate development reflects on 40 years of change in the lubricants industry—particularly the need for young workers.
RALPH BEARD - The Quick File
Ralph Beard is the director of corporate development for Functional Products. His career in the lubricant field began in 1971, giving him more than 40 years of experience in almost all facets of the lubricants industry.
Ralph began his career with the Union Oil Co. of California (Unocal 76) as a commercial sales trainee. In early 1972 he was assigned a sales territory in the Minneapolis, Minn., area office of Unocal. During the next three years Ralph became the local lubricant technical specialist for the company. In Unocal’s in-depth technical training courses for both automotive and industrial lubricants, Ralph scored near the top of his class in each instance. Twice he was awarded the quarterly top commercial sales representative.
In 1975 he was asked to manage the sales, technical service and product management of Unocal’s WH Barber subsidiary in Minneapolis. During his time there, he became deeply involved in formulation development and management for all lubricants produced at that facility. Additive and base stock suppliers were among those he worked closely with.
In 1976 Ralph moved to Chicago to be part of the additive industry as territory manager for Keil Chemical. During the next five years Ralph became fully involved in building Keil’s significant market share with their line of metalworking additives. One of his many contributions was working with Keil’s development team regarding the early line of water-based metalworking chemistries and products. He eventually became responsible for all of Keil’s business throughout the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada. With the extensive traveling, he became a regular speaker on metalworking additive technology at local STLE chapters and participated in several chapters’ annual education programs.
In 1981 Ralph moved back to Minneapolis to become product and technical manager for the Farm Oyl Co. Over the next nine years, he helped implement significant advancements in Farm Oyl’s technical positioning with heavy-duty and off-road lubricant innovations.
Ralph was then asked by the leadership of STLE (then ASLE) to resurrect STLE’s dormant Twin Cities Section. He was able to marshal the regional resources of others in the lubrication industry and became chairman of the revitalized chapter in 1983, a role he continued for a second year. Ralph holds section chairman recognition plaques in consecutive years, showing both ASLE and STLE logos.
In 1990 Ralph was given an opportunity to return to his native state of Alabama. As the new marketing director of an automotive products packager, he maintained and worked to eventually move the company toward a role in the lubricant business.
In 1992 he started his own business, Triad Lubrication Components, as an independent manufacturer’s representative focusing on additives for the lubricant industry in the Southeastern U.S. Over the next 18 years, Ralph built a company fully focused and dedicated to supporting the lubricant industry with a wide array of raw material components. The company distributed additives and base stocks in more than 11 Southeastern and Southwestern states before Triad was sold to Palmer Holland in 2010, and Ralph became vice president of lubrication components.
After his agreement was complete with Palmer Holland, he briefly took a position with Dorf Ketal Chemicals to manage their global technical and business development of their lubricant additive products.
In addition to his responsibilities with Functional Products, Ralph is active in the tribology and lubrication sciences minor program at his alma mater, Auburn University. In 2008, while at the STLE Annual Meeting, Ralph became acquainted with Dr. Robert Jackson, a mechanical engineering professor at Auburn. During the next three years, Ralph pressed the idea that it was finally time to generate a formal undergraduate educational track to replenish the aging talent within our industry. Today he is the chairman of the tribology minor’s Industry Advisory Board and is active in assisting the program as it continues to support the industry and its future leaders.
Ralph Beard
TLT: How has tribology changed since you became involved in the science more than 40 years ago?
Beard: What has really changed most about tribology—and in particular relating to the academic side—is that, up until the Auburn tribology program was launched, academia was mostly focused toward specific research grants and projects. The primary mission of the Auburn tribology program does not lead with research but is primarily focused on replenishment of talent for the industry.
Our industry has been challenged, as have many other technical fields, to replace aging wisdom and knowledge. Studies have indicated that many people are expected to leave this industry in the next five to 10 years. A great many of these people represent significant years of training and understanding.
The mid-1970s marked the end of the intensive and very critical individual corporate lubrication training offered by major oil companies. Unocal’s advanced automotive and industrial courses, each equivalent to at least a semester’s worth of work, are perfect examples of this training. These courses provide people like me with both mechanical and chemical understanding of the necessary elements that are the foundation of tribology. The long-standing traditional internal training that occurred at all major oil companies leading up to that time has not really been equaled since.
It seems obvious to me that a person with a more in-depth understanding of tribology and the fundamentals of good lubrication can be a more productive individual within our industry. Having that background coupled with an understanding of the commercial nature of the industry assures that he or she will be a more productive part of our industry. A basic education in tribology also hopefully encourages one to pursue a long career within our industry. A formally educated person in any field has a natural incentive to continue his or her career pathway in that field.
Such an individual also can more easily recognize and act on the benefits that can be brought about with good tribology management. If they are users of lubricants or those supplying these products and their ingredients, the articulation and understanding of the long-term value proposition of superior lubrication engineering should be a cornerstone and critical part of the world we live in.
A program such as the Auburn tribology minor can and will achieve that goal.
A group shot of the Auburn Tribology Industry Advisory Board that attended the 2015 NLGI 82nd Annual Meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. From left to right: John Sander, Lubrication Engineers; Annie Jarquin, Malik PIMS; Dr. Raj Shah, Koehler Instrument; David Millin, The Elco Corp.; Dr. Maureen Hunter, King Industries; and Ralph Beard, Functional Products.
TLT: Where do you think the field’s biggest current needs are to flourish in the future?
Beard: I am excited to see the evolution of the biolubrication segment of our industry. My education in biology helps me smile just a bit more when I see advancements in non-petroleum-based lubrication technology. Improvements in biotribology not only advance the prospect of environmental stewardship but carry with it other tangible benefits. Every gallon of successful biolubricant that is applied reduces dependence on hydrocarbon-based lubrication and, more important, helps to shift revenue transfer away from unstable areas of the world. A Manitoba, Canada, canola farmer appears far more stable and friendly than others from different parts of the world at the moment.
Conversely, I am very concerned about the growing and seemingly never-ending regulatory burden that our industry must deal with. Unless we can find ways to mitigate this growing threat, the overall cost of rising regulatory hurdles will forever change the business. Funding to create new and better technology will have to take second place as the financial landscape becomes ever more tilted toward keeping pace with increasing regulations. Similarly, tribology education initiatives may be adversely affected.
Ralph Beard and his wife Janet at the 2015 NLGI 82nd Annual Meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
TLT: What are the most exciting emerging technical developments in lubrication?
Beard: Between the extreme nature of viscosity reductions in search of fuel economy and the further understanding of nanotribology, it’s hard to pick between the two.
Reaching to the very bottom of the viscometric scale—as we are attempting to do with crankcase oils—will challenge us to balance formulations as never before. The stakes are high: fuel efficiency versus long-term reliability and replacement costs. It will be interesting to see where the bottom actually is in viscosity reduction.
Nanotribology has been an interesting concept for a number of years now. We are finally seeing some evidence that this technology has definable merit. However, we must be careful to screen real benefits from the growing presence of marketing driven claims surrounding all things “nano.”
Ralph Beard (left) and Chuck Coe, Past President of NLGI, at the 2014 NLGI 81st Annual Meeting. Ralph was the industry speaker at this meeting.
TLT: How did you get started in the lubrication industry?
Beard: In all honesty, I got here by accident. My degree (many of my colleagues already know this) is in marine biology. After graduating in June 1971 and desperate to find a job, I stumbled into the pathway that was the major oil companies’ primary route of bringing on new talent back then. My degree, with the chemistry and physics that it required, opened a door for at least an interview with a couple of major oil companies.
There were two pathways available to a young person back then. A science and non-business education track would generally place an individual in the commercial/wholesale part of a given major oil company’s marketing and sales efforts. A business or similar degree opened up the opportunity to work in the retail side, which supported providing branded service stations and truck stops with primarily fuels, lubes and TBA (tires, batteries and accessories).
I was fortunate that Unocal had a strong regional presence at the time in the Southeast, and that I also fit their commercial/wholesale trainee profile. From that simple start, I’m very fortunate and blessed to have been a part of this wonderful business and to have made friends with so many fine people.
Ralph Beard fishing in his spare time.
You can reach Ralph Beard at rbeard@functionalproducts.com.