From Reactive to Reliability, 10 years of Partnership between OMS LubriTek and Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation
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When OMS LubriTek began working with Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation, part of Genuit Group, in 2016, the relationship was initially centred on hydraulic oil support for injection moulding machinery at the company’s Horncastle site. Ten years on, that work has developed into a broader partnership covering proactive oil analysis, filtration, lubrication management, contamination control, machinery moves, training, and ongoing engineering support. With ongoing close support from Jamie Shaw (pictured above, left) and his team at OMS LubriTek, Polypipe CGU’s Horncastle site has seen improved reliability across critical equipment, lower downtime, fewer unnecessary oil changes, and a more strategic approach to machinery care.
A Decade of Partnership at Horncastle
Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation manufactures engineered water management, surface water drainage and cable protection systems, with the Horncastle site focused heavily on injection moulding and large scale extrusion. Across the wider Polypipe CGU operation, with four sites in the UK and one in Ireland, the business runs a substantial fleet of equipment, including more than 130 injection moulding machines, over 40 extruders, recycling machinery and a wide range of supporting systems.
At Horncastle, that machinery base represents a major capital investment, and as a high-volume production facility, reliability and uptime is central to performance and cost control. As Polypipe CGU’s Engineering Manager, Stacey Whitworth, (pictured above, right) says, the decade of partnership with OMS LubriTek has made “a night and day difference” to the facility.
The Starting Point: A Reactive Approach
Before OMS became involved at the Horncastle site in 2016, Polypipe CGU did not have a structured oil management programme in place. Hydraulic issues were dealt with reactively, and hydraulic oil was largely treated as a commodity item, purchased on price rather than managed as a critical part of machine performance. That approach is very common across industry, but it often means machinery only receives attention when faults arise, by which point the cost has already escalated through breakdowns, wasted oil, lost productivity, or avoidable wear on expensive components.
OMS LubriTek approached the site differently from the outset. From day one, the company’s philosophy was based on education, proactive monitoring, and long-term machinery protection rather than simple lubricant supply. The aim was to show what could be achieved by treating oil as part of a wider reliability strategy, not just as a consumable. That service-led approach, led by Jamie Shaw and his team, is backed by decades of experience in plastics manufacturing and lubrication management, and has remained central to the relationship ever since.
Proving the Value
In 2016, OMS LubriTek was engaged by Polypipe CGU to complete oil changes on its moulding machinery, and was the first company in the UK to benefit from the effectiveness of VRT UltraClean – a solvent free additive designed to remove varnish and sludge within the hydraulic systems, to extend component life.
The programme then rolled out to all injection moulding machines on site, and was successfully completed by the end of 2017, giving strong results across the board, solving issues such as sticking servo & proportional valve spools, regular pump replacements, overheating hydraulic systems and inconsistent machine performance. From this first successful project, OMS was able to demonstrate the value of proactive oil management in practical terms, reducing downtime, lowering the need for reactive intervention, and elimating waste oil from regular oil changes..
After identifying no broader oil management plan in place, Jamie set out to educate the Polypipe CGU team on further savings that ongoing oil programmes can bring.
Expanding the Scope of Support
That early success laid the foundation for a much wider partnership. In 2018, OMS LubriTek, ENGEL UK and Polypipe CGU worked together on a trial of GPII UltraLife EE, an energy-efficient hydraulic oil based on higher performing group 2 base oil technology with advanced additive pack technology. Using ENGEL EcoGraph technology, the trial generated 2.4 million data points and showed an energy saving of 8.5% compared with mineral-based hydraulic oil. Significantly, the same oil remains in the trial machine today, 8 years on, which underlines one of the wider benefits of the partnership, extending oil life while maintaining performance through ongoing monitoring and control.
By 2019, the relationship had moved into a formal proactive service partnership. This included oil analysis across injection moulding machines, extruder gearboxes and ancillary hydraulic systems, as well as twice-yearly proactive filtration of injection moulding hydraulic systems with pre and post oil sampling to demonstrate ISO4406 cleanliness levels. Instead of draining and replacing oil when faults occurred, Polypipe CGU began using regular monitoring to track oil condition and intervene only when necessary. Today, hydraulic oil is analysed three times per year on every machine, giving the maintenance team far greater visibility and control.
In 2021, OMS supplied the equipment and training needed for Polypipe CGU to carry out proactive filtration in-house, while continuing site-wide oil analysis to monitor lubricant condition across critical assets. The following year, OMS expanded its support further by designing and installing oil dispensing systems that reduced airborne contamination and helped prevent cross-contamination through colour-coded containers. This ensured that the correct lubricants were used in the correct applications, while also keeping fresh oil clean before it entered machinery.
The scope of work also widened beyond injection moulding. After delivering significant improvements on the moulding side, OMS began supporting extrusion equipment and gearboxes, where moving from mineral-based lubricants to synthetic options offered further gains in energy efficiency, component protection, oil life and sustainability. This has been coupled with installation of offline filtration technology to extend the oil life & protect internal components. In later years, that wider support extended to projects at other sites, including the transfer of 10 injection moulding machines from Rochdale to Horncastle in 2023, and hydraulic oil management for a new vertical press project at the Loughborough site in 2024. Despite the focus on Horncastle, those projects showed the level of trust built between the two businesses working on a national scale.
Measurable Gains in Reliability and Cost Control
For Polypipe CGU, the value of the partnership has been measured in several ways.
- Production efficiency rates have been significantly increased
- Maintenance costs have been slashed
- The maintenance team at Polypipe CGU can focus on other areas of site improving reliability across processes
In many cases, machines first managed by OMS between 2016 and 2018 are still running on the same oil eight to ten years later.
Avoiding unplanned downtime alone is estimated to save Polypipe CGU tens of thousands of pounds per year, while the broader savings over the full life of the partnership are potentially much greater.
Just as important has been the operational peace of mind the arrangement provides.
Rather than waiting for a fault to occur and then reacting, the Polypipe CGU team now has a consistent programme of analysis, advice and intervention in place.
As Stacey Whitworth, Engineering Manager at Polypipe CGU puts it: “We cannot afford downtime. Oil analysis is key to that.” He adds: “There is a night and day difference between our machinery reliability and production outcomes today and 10 years ago. These improvements are a direct result of the work carried out by OMS LubriTek.”
Education and Partnership
Whitworth also points to the educational side of the relationship as a major part of its value. “An element of schooling is needed, even for our time served as engineers. OMS have given us that,” he says. That reflects one of the less visible, but no less important, parts of the partnership. OMS has not only worked on the machinery itself, it has helped Polypipe CGU’s engineers better understand lubrication, condition monitoring and contamination control, allowing the site to manage systems more effectively day to day.
For Jamie Shaw, Director at OMS LubriTek, that educational role has become increasingly important over time. “Education is becoming a bigger and bigger part of what we do. Either direct training of staff, or educating on new technologies and new options, like high-performance oils.”
“It’s hard to accurately quantify the savings, but it’s potentially hundreds of thousands over the years,” he says.
That focus on service, trust and continuous improvement helps explain why the relationship has lasted. Over the past decade, OMS has built direct working relationships with different teams of engineers across different departments, even different sites, of the Polypipe business and has become a trusted point of contact rather than a transactionary supplier.
The company is now seen as an extension of the maintenance function, supporting not only oil supply, but information, education, and broader reliability goals across the site.
A Broader Lesson for Manufacturers
For manufacturing businesses, the wider lesson is straightforward. Hydraulic oil management is not just about what lubricant is purchased. It is about how that oil is monitored, filtered, protected from contamination, and integrated into a site’s wider maintenance strategy.
At Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation, 10 years of partnership with OMS LubriTek have shown what can happen when lubrication is treated as a long-term reliability issue rather than a short-term commodity purchase. The outcome has been stronger machinery performance, lower intervention, and a more resilient production environment, as well as peace of mind for the Polypipe CGU maintenance team, knowing they have the ongoing support and decades of experience built up by the OMS LubriTek team.
Working with machinery suppliers and manufacturing companies, OMS LubriTek offers tailored packages to suit individual needs, across oil supply, servicing, education and proactive management systems. If you’d like to learn more about the potential benefits for your company, reach out to Jamie Shaw directly, using the details below.
Read more news from OMS LubriTek here.
