A force for good

According to Steve Coull of Jemtech's UK operation, the management of cutting fluids should not be considered a 'necessary evil', especially by those working in high added value areas and exotic materials.

According to Steve Coull of Jemtech's UK operation, the management of cutting fluids should not be considered a ‘necessary evil', especially by those working in high added value areas and exotic materials. He explains why good housekeeping is essential to performance, HSE, productivity and profitability.
Good management of cutting fluids benefits every department within a business. Production gains from increased tool life, reduced machine downtime and reduced scrap and rework. Purchasing will see reductions in consumable budgets whilst health, environmental and safety procedures will be enhanced. However, many businesses do not recognise the potential of good quality fluid management, with some ignoring it all together. In truth, no fluid management is better than poor management. It at least gives a baseline, whereas poor management can be moving you further away from where you need to be, sometimes without you even knowing it. Through our partnership with Blaser Swisslube, we have many years of experience in cutting fluid technology and the correct management of it. What we see when correct management is in place are increased fluid life (reducing usage by 15-20%), significantly increased tool life (typically 10-20%), especially when machining exotic materials, and improved process security, which in turn leads to reductions in scrap and rework. Also of significance is the lowering of waste volume of around 25%. With disposal costs running at £500/2,000 litres and a typical user producing 20,000 to 30,000 litres of waste per year from cutting fluids, the cost and environmental advantages are plain to see. Good housekeeping

To achieve this, cutting fluid housekeeping needs to be undertaken in a positive manner by factory-trained technicians, either in-house or provided by suppliers such as Jemtech. Throughout the process there are many pitfalls that can easily be avoided. For instance, poor fluid management will inevitably lead to the concentration of the coolant being inconsistent, the weakening of the strength of the fluid leads to much lower lubricity and the risk of tool breakage. Going in the opposite direction and increasing the volume of concentrate above the recommended levels is simply wasting money as there is no perceivable production benefit of doing so. Another area that may affect the quality and performance of cutting fluid is a drive from purchasing to reduce costs. As has already been highlighted, these cost savings can be achieved through good fluid management, but if the decision is taken to reduce purchasing costs by buying cheaper in an attempt to deliver the same results this can lead to significant issues in production. If we take a typical machine tool package for high value, precision aerospace components costing around £350,000, this is a major investment in anyone's terms. The coolant tank on a machine of this type would typically hold 1,000 litres, requiring 80 litres of concentrate. The cost to fill this tank using Blaser Swisslube products would typically be £400 or £5/litre. By switching to a product at, say, £2/litre you would save £160 on a £350,000 investment! However, by using a low cost product you are restricting the use of the machine tool's full potential. The question that needs to be asked, especially in the aerospace sector is: Can you justify the potential cost of a tap breaking in a component manufactured from material that is expensive and of limited availability, and which has had many hours of machined value added to it for the sake of saving £240 on cutting fluid? This is why management of cutting fluids is so vital to the wellbeing of a production environment. Users must look at value rather than purely price and ensure that they are achieving the maximum they can from their cutting fluid, in terms of tool life, fluid life, waste reduction and cost benefits. The complete control of cutting fluids is vital to the production and financial performance of any business involved in metalcutting, and it is control that will deliver consistently high quality components, on time, and profitably. www.jemtech.co.uk
 

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