Our History
100 Years of High Performance Lubricants
A history of
Performance
Founded in 1914 on the Midland Valley Railroad in Sperry, OK, TROCO – Tulsa Refined Oil CO. has been blending high performance lubricants in the United States for nearly 100 years.
1914
Tulsa Refined Oil Co (TROCO) founded
Tulsa Refined Oil Co, founded in 1914, (TROCO) – blending high performance lubricants and supplying fuel filling stations and lubricants to the Tulsa Area. The filling stations were sold off and TROCO continued to supply lubricants to the Oil Fields, Farmers and Industrial businesses.
1932
Royal Manufacturing Established
Royal Manufacturing was established during the depression years and the Mallory’s begin working there running operations.
1942
Royal Purchased by Mallory Family
The Mallory family purchased Royal during World War II and established it as a specialty oil field supplier of drilling mud and tool joint compounds along with rust preservatives for shipping products overseas.
1954
Purchase and Consolidation of TROCO
The Mallory family purchased Tulsa Refined Oil Co (TROCO) and consolidate the business of the two companies and expanded the marketing area to other surrounding states and industries such as industrial plants and off highway.
1976
Acquisition of Wright Oil Co.
Growth continued for Royal, they acquired Wright Oil Co. in San Antonio, TX, from a leading construction contract company and this dramatically increased the operating territory to all of Texas, Texas Rio Grande Valley, Mexico, and parts of Louisiana. As a sales and manufacturing group, Royal enlarged its quality control and research development labs putting a strong emphasis on technology.
“Royal 760 was developed and had special advantages for anti-wear and extreme pressure that exceeded other Lithium greases at this time and still is a leader in Lithium high performance greases in the industry.
When the current Lithium Complex line of greases were developed our sales and marketing manager realized we had a powerful new grease. He said when he was growing up, the Oldsmobile 98 reflected power and speed in the automotive industry and he felt our newly developed grease should be named “98” because it had the top position in our grease family, industry and was perceived as a powerful and long-life grease.
1987
Development of Royal 876
Royal 876 was developed as a series of six heavy duty greases for construction and mining applications the 876 series of greases were expanded to include current specifications for Caterpillar, Komatsu and other heavy equipment manufacturers.
Royal began development work of an improved way to develop a line of calcium sulfonate complex greases.
Royal’s goal was to develop a Calcium Sulfonate Complex Grease that would exceed the performance criteria of the now seasoned Lithium Complex greases and at the same time would also improve on the CSC greases that were presently developed and marketed. CSC greases exhibited excellent rust and corrosion properties, good load bearing protection and higher temperature application but had difficulty in colder climates.
Our goal was to bring to market a highly improved CSC grease that (1) have improved features over Lithium Complex greases, (2) maintain all good features of current CSC greases, (3) offer improved versatility in cold climate operation, (4) extend the lubricating life in sea water application and other water related areas and (5) be a superior “food grade” grease with heavy duty grease features.
Through Royal’s development process and new development techniques we were successful in accomplishing all five or our desired goals. Royal developed the leading CSC greases offered to the market today. Royal has become a market leader for modern CSC greases.
2006
Royal Moves to Schertz, TX
Royal moves to a brand new 14- acre facility in the suburbs of San Antonio, Schertz, TX, and greatly increased production capacity of its lubricants.
2008
Tulsa expansion
Royal expands the grease making capacity by installing two additional grease kettles and packaging equipment in Tulsa. Royal also builds a new Grease Plant in Schertz, TX with an additional 16 kettles of capacity.
2012
Consolidation of Wright & TROCO
ROYAL merges TROCO & WRIGHT into the Royal branded line of products and begins marketing ROYAL in industrial industries across the United States and abroad growing our branded distribution footprint in over 30 countries.
Royal continued growth to produce specialties such as polyurea, calcium sulfonate, aluminum complex greases, and bio-based, synthetic and food grade varieties. Royal is an ISO certified company and holds NSF®, Kosher and Halal approved certifications.
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2018
AXEL Christiernsson Group acquires Royal.
With over 130 years of experience, AXEL has followed its vision and expanded dramatically to become a leading global producer and supplier of lubricating grease to high-profile regional and international players
2020
AXEL Proceeds with Multi-Million Dollar Expansion and Improvement Plan
AXEL Proceeds with Multi-Million Dollar Expansion and Improvement Plan at its 3 Plants in the USA.