TLT: How long have you worked in a lubrication-related field, and how did you decide to pursue a career in the lubricants industry? 
Holloway: I have 38 years of industrial experience and 23 years in lubrication. I started in the field of lubrication in 2000 with NCH Corp. I had R&D, product development, program management and technical marketing experience with General Electric, Rohm & Hass, WR Grace and Olin Chemical previously. NCH came in with an offer to help build their independent lubricant business. The opportunity was there, the location seemed nice and the pay was good, so I took it. I didn’t know a whole lot about lubricants going in—however, I figured I would learn. I haven’t stopped learning. 

TLT: What has been your most rewarding accomplishment throughout your career in the lubricants industry? 
Holloway: It would have to be training associates and customers on certification preparation. Over the past 20 years, I have had the opportunity to help others pass various professional certifications—to date, over 1,500 over the past 20 years. It’s really a great feeling when someone comes up to you at a conference or trade show and thanks you for helping them advance their career and knowledge base. It’s even better when they tell you that they still remember some of the “Holloway Rabbit Hole” stories that somehow always trailed back to getting a point across! And here I was just trying to make a rather boring fundamental concept interesting.

TLT: What is the No. 1 piece of advice you would give to a person who might be interested in starting a career in the lubricants industry? 
Holloway: Don’t believe the “lubricant canon”—test it! So often there are ideas and concepts that get taught and shared that have elements of convenience, yet are not always true for a particular application. Some data was developed in a very controlled lab environment and doesn’t consider various dependent or independent variables that would influence the data. It’s important to test and confirm some of the basic ideas to make sure your foundations of assumptions are true. Sometime a surprise will occur that changes your entire way of thinking. That’s when the paradigm shifts and real breakthroughs occur. 

TLT: Throughout the different segments within your career, which one has been the most interesting, challenging and/ or rewarding? 
Holloway: The most rewarding for me was having to design and develop course content for a wide range of individuals. The way you would teach an engineer is different than the way you would teach a salesperson. Most people have dominant learning styles—be it visual, auditory or kinetic. Having a class of people with various learning modalities makes for a challenge as well as a great class if worked correctly. 


Michael Holloway outside of SGS.

TLT: What are some of the most technical lubrication-based concepts or topics you have encountered throughout your career? 
Holloway: I was in Houston. After a plant survey, I went to a bar with an associate to have a few beers and discuss what we were going to do the following day. I happened to mention the idea of developing a product that a customer could inject into a bearing while it was running, and it would loosen up any hardened greases and polish away any varnish all while continuing to lubricate. He asked how it would work, so I took a bar napkin (all the best ideas are done on bar napkins) and proceeded to draft out the idea, including the formula and application. After a while I tucked it into my Day-Timer organizer (that’s how long ago it was!) and forgot about it until a few weeks later when we were having a product development meeting. I was taking notes, and it was on the proceeding page. At the end of the meeting, the R&D director asked if there was anything else anyone wanted to talk about, so I introduced the idea of a bearing purge product. Everyone thought it was worth investigating. I worked on it with the R&D team, and we formulated, tested and applied for a patent. The product is gently introduced into the bearing and allowed to purge out all the old grease. I went with an over-based calcium sulfonate thickener because it’s a great thickener with antioxidant and antiwear properties, made it an NLGI #1 for pumpability and fluidity, used an ester base oil due to its solvency and added in some micronized mica as a soft abrasive to polish. I wanted to make it a color that no other grease was, so I chose orange at the time. As soon as we saw bright orange grease pour out, we knew the bearing was filled with the product. We would let it work its magic for an hour or so, then displace it with the new grease. It worked awesomely! It cleaned up the bearings during operation. I had the opportunity to field trial it in steel mills, rendering plants, mines and all sorts of nasty places. It worked great! It saved a bunch of large bearings from being destroyed and large sums of money in downtime savings. The company didn’t sell much of it; they didn’t have to. However, it was responsible for millions of dollars of savings. 

TLT: What is the one thing you wish you would have learned earlier in your career? 
Holloway: I wish I learned to take more chances. Often we won’t take a chance due to the fear of failure. That’s a huge mistake. Failure is a key to success if used properly— however sometimes we tend to try to use the same key on different locks and expect it to open. Each new challenge is a problem to be solved, and every problem has a solution. Sometimes that solution is not obvious. Like any lock, there is a combination to be solved, be it a series of tumblers coming into alignment or an encrypted code to be administered. There is always a solution—we just must have the courage to take repeated chances at solving it. 

You can reach Michael Holloway at michael.holloway@sgs.com.