They say that if you want to become a master at something, you have to do it 10,000 times. It took us 20,000 times.
In 2020, with constant improvements to our daily work, we have invented something that hasn’t been available in Estonia or anywhere else.
- We were able to perform dynamic oil changes about 2 times faster than anyone else.
- The result of the oil change (cleanliness of the gearbox) was better than that of the competitors, even with less oil.
- Testing our gearboxes before the oil change ensured that already excessively worn gearboxes do not make it to the oil change.
- We had developed a method of gradually loading the gearbox and increasing the temperature, which allowed us to diagnose gearboxes much better than before.
We started recording and patenting our knowledge at the end of 2020, and more than 4 years later, on 07.01.2025, the European patent EP4033125 – A DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CHANGING TECHNICAL FLUID OF AN AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION was registered in the entire European Union.
This means that the Hõbenool patent is valid in 18 EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, the Netherlands, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, France, Sweden, Romania, Germany, Slovenia, Finland and Denmark. The number of countries may increase in the future.
What does the patent protect?
A European patent (unlike, for example, an Estonian patent) allows several “things” to be combined in one patent, and thus we were able to obtain European protection for several devices and methods we invented. The following are now protected as intellectual property:
- Equipment used to perform oil changes in Hõbenool.
- The method by which we perform a dynamic oil change.
- Control mechanisms, how gearboxes are tested on the road with a computer before an oil change.
- A method of assessing internal leaks, clutch wear, and overall health of transmissions by varying the load on the transmission.
The principle of patenting is that anything that is novel must be accurately recorded so that others do not use it without permission.
In essence, however, this does not mean that everyone who reads the patent can now immediately perform an oil change or diagnostics using a similar method.
Far from it, because the patent protects general principles, but the experience, knowledge, and even gut feeling that comes from dealing with tens of thousands of gearboxes – luckily, they cannot be transferred to others. They are and will remain at Hõbenool.
The patent is available as a PDF here – Click here.
