History of SK-OIL
The history of SK-OIL can be traced back to 1952 when Soken Chemical & Engineering Co., Ltd., forerunner of Soken Tecnix Co., Ltd., applied for a patent on its Japan's first heat transfer fluid SK-OIL260 and started manufacturing and sales of the product.
What is SK-OIL?
Heat transfer fluids are indispensable in the chemical industry including the manufacturing of plastic and synthetic fibers used for automobiles or home appliances, although they are not familiar with among the general public.
The heat transfer fluid product that was first applied for a patent, manufactured and sold in Japan was SK-OIL260. Today, a series of SK-OIL products are available. Boilers that use such heat transfer oils may be called "SK Boilers" as a nickname.
Background of development of the Japan's first heat transfer fluid and about the brand name
After the end of the World War II, Japan introduced the synthetic fiber production technology from Western countries. The chemical industry's attention focused on heat transfer fluids, but it was hard to buy expensive imported heat transfer fluids at that time.
Then, Satoshi Nakajima, one of the founders of Soken Chemical & Engineering, established a production technique of heat transfer fluids from high temperature tar based on his wartime experience in the Japanese Imperial Army's Fuel Technology Research Institute. In 1952, he applied for a patent on the production technique and launched the manufacturing and sales of the product with a brand name of SK-OIL 260. That was the Japan's first ever heat transfer fluid. SK-OIL 260 came to be available at about half price of the imported counterpart. Furthermore, the domestic product eliminated the downside of the overseas product that the fluid became solid during winter season, and rapidly expanded the market.
Origin of the name of SK-OIL
The term SK of SK-OIL refers to Soken Chemical & Engineering, forerunner of Soken Tecnix. Currently, we also use the brand name of NeoSK-OIL and KSK-OIL.
NeoSK-OIL was named by putting Neo in the beginning of SK-OIL since SK-OIL was further improved to provide higher thermal insulation and higher performance.
KSK-OILwas named by putting K in the beginning of SK-OIL since KSK-OIL was developed jointly with another leading chemical company whose initial included the letter K .
The suffix of SK-OIL product series, for example, 330 in the case of NeoSK-OIL330, represents an approximate value of the product’s boiling point.
For SK-OIL Series followed by a 4-digit number as in NeoSK-OIL1400, the most right three digits except the thousand’s place represent an approximate value of the boiling point.
The presence of the value 1 in the thousand’s place indicates that the product is more sophisticated than the counterpart without the thousand’s place.
