How hard (and dear) would it be to open a UOA lab?

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In my area (north of Spain) car racing is very popular. I know people that spend fortunes in racing cars and equipment but none of those I spoked with about UOA ever heard about it.

After talking with a few of those guys, they all think it's a great idea and that it'd be great to have a laboratory available here, so we are thinking that it could be a good business to start one (also the heavy machinery industry is big here).

It's only a very raw idea, but we are starting to think about what equipment and knowledge would be need.

I've visited here: http://www.kittiwake.com/advanced-oil-analysis-solutions but I really don't know where to start.

What tools will we need to start making basic UOA's?. Would we need to hire a tribologist or could we learn it by ourselves?

Any ideas and thoughts are really appreciated!!

PS: sorry for my english, it's a bit rusty nowadays
 
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My advice:

Gather all the information you can, equipment prices, real estate/lab space, etc.

Include the cost of a few technicians and the cost of a consulting tribologist.

Find some investors.

Go for it!
 
You could start your business by working with Polaris to be a "private label". They would do the actual analysis but you could call the company "ECCO's Labs". The website and anything printed would say "ECCO's Labs". Amsoil does this with Polaris. Maybe ship them a case of samples twice a week. They have a lab in Poland you can send the case of samples to.

If you bought your own equipment it would be several years before you show a profit.

Once you have say 1000 samples a week coming in, you could consider buying equipment. For now you can concentrate on sales and marketing.

Although I am a computer guy and have only worked for 3 very large corporations, I have realized the need for a business case for new projects. So you need to put together a business case for this and it needs to be realistic.

For example, I have a Bobcat and trailer and considered trying my hand at starting a business doing light excavation. But between needing insurance even for my first customer and me being 60 and no longer a youngster I would be lucky to make 25% of the money I make doing computer work.
 
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A good gas chromatograph or other analytical device starts around $45-50k with computer and autosampler. Then youll need a variety of devices associated with the different elements (ICP, etc), some other viscometers, a lot of traceable calibration standards, etc.

You could do a comparison for shear, fuel, etc. with just a GC and viscometer for under $100k, but you wont get many wear/add metals, only the elements that a PFPD can look at, like sulfur and phosphorous.
 
Sounds like a great idea!

In your position I would consider contacting the folks at Blackstone; they seem very friendly and since you would not be in competition with them they could likely be of some assistance.
 
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