Rocol is a general lubricant manufacturing company. Unlike other specialty companies, metalworking fluid is not their core business.  Let’s see where they stand on our application and selection test.

PAGE TEST: (1 (out of 3)) Busy and colorful homepage with a animated slider, either they forgot metalworking fluid while designing banner or they don’t give so much importance to them. You need to search till bottom for metalworking fluids, and even there you only find them identified by brand names.  If it's actually there and we didn't see it - well, that says it all, because we certainly looked for it.  Good to see them making use of technology and providing an application for mobile.  We downloaded the app but here also they forgot metalworking fluids, so if you are looking for metalworking fluids don’t waste time and space in your handset with this application.  At the end of the investigation, we never found all of the metalworking fluids on a single page on the website, but we did find them on a downloadable PDF, which is a pain.  One point.

CLICK TEST: (-7 ) It is 6 to 7 clicks to reach a product through an application selector.  Until you arrive there, you really don’t know exactly you are looking for.

CHART TEST: (2 (out of 3))  A chart is available but you need to be a real good navigator for this.  Worse yet, you have to disclose your identity to see it.  Submit your name, company  name and email address then they trust you and share brochure and you get a chart on a long 28-page PDF file. Classification and selection is purely by material.  Web details regarding operation are limited to intensity (heavy-duty, etc).  However, grinding gets it's own chart.   We like the comment at the bottom, "If you require help selecting a product..."  No, no, got everything I need right  here.  It's almost like "If you're too stupid to place an order after looking at our chart, you can call us."  You will need to call them.  The chart is nice, but not enough. Again, it lacks the operation identification or operation and intensity level detail (available on the grinding chart), and lacks "not recommended" indicators for those of us on central systems.  Features of the fluid besides what color it is would also be nice.  I'm sure all of that information is available "elsewhere" but why have to look elsewhere?

  LINK TEST: (3 of 3)) The MSDS and PDS links are available, but not on selection page. There is a separate tab right at the top of homepage which provides you Data Sheet as well as Safety sheet.

 CLASSIFICATION TEST:

Organization- Well organized at the downloaded brochure level.  Until then, you need a map and a compass.

Detail- Hardly any details on the webpages. Again, you get few details once you reach the PDF brochure.

Uniformity- Uniformity with appropriate repetition.  We want information, not a novel.  This was done right.

Overall grade- B- because nobody with a Chart gets a lower grade than that.  If they did, this grade would be lower.  They made a sincere attempt by providing product selector by material on the brochure. Could have earned more points with more data and details on the chart  and put it where we can find it in the first 3 minutes on your site.  That would require treating metalworking fluids with equal importance to their other products at the homepage rather than PDF brochure.  We want to click once and see a list of the metalworking fluid products and a detailed application chart.