FUCHS : Coolant Management Outsourcing: Proven Cost Reduction Strategy

The use of titanium is becoming more popular in industries such as aerospace, marine, and medical manufacturing.

For industries such as these; the natural inherent properties of titanium offer significant advantages, higher strength but lower weight than steels and aluminium, and twice the elasticity of steel make it eminently suitable for applications such as aircraft landing gear and wing structures and hip and knee joint mechanisms to aid technical innovation.

However, because of these inherent properties, titanium is notoriously difficult to machine and, if there is one key challenge in the machining of titanium today, it is achieving fast metal removal rates (MRR) with reasonable tool life so as achieve technical innovation at a cost effective rate.

Fortunately, recent advances in machine tool and tooling technology have made the goal of high MRR with longer tool life possible. As a result, manufacturers can now produce high-quality titanium components with shorter cycle times, increased tool life, and higher machine shop productivity by utilising high-flow, high pressure through spindle coolant delivery systems to aid productivity.

However, maximum efficiency can only be achieved if the coolant technology is matched to meet the operating criteria of titanium machining and FUCHS has used its global research team to develop the ECOCOOL S 761 range of products to achieve these aims.

Richard Rogers, Industrial Product Manager at Fuchs Lubricants UK plc comments:
“New coolant delivery systems for high speed machining of titanium creates new and complex demands on the metalworking fluid in terms of lubricity, cooling, tool protection and dissipation of fine chip particles. The FUCHS ECOCOOL S 761 range has been designed to meet these demand and our products show tangible commercial benefits for manufacturers in the aerospace and medical manufacturing industries”.

Rogers pointed to one example for the ECOCOOL S 761 B product,
“The ECOCOOL S 761 B is now approved by Boeing against their specification BAC 5008 and is the first to meet the new stringent criteria. Its value can be seen from tests that we have already conducted in the USA and UK, especially in tool life on fast metal removal rate operations. At one aerospace customer, monthly tool breakages were down from 259, with conventional technology, to 83 with our new ECOCOOL S 761 B product. This equated to a monthly tooling cost saving of over £15,000.

These savings were attributed to the superior lubricity and foam control of the ECOCOOL S 761 B over the incumbent cutting fluid. Superior lubricity, a more consistent emulsion quality and no plugging of filters led the customer to say:
“If there are unexpected tool breakages, I know that it’s a mechanical problem & not a coolant problem.”

Rogers also pointed to the robust nature of the new technology which is of great concern to manufacturers and also the flexibility that this gives manufacturers:
“Before using ECOCOOL S 761 B, the client was making regular additions of tank side additives to maintain pH and keep the emulsion tight. The robust chemistry uses in the ECOCOOL S 761 range virtually eliminates the need for these labour intensive maintenance practices. While regular refractometer checks are still required to maintain concentration during daily topping up of coolant, the result is less time needed to monitor pH and sample for lab analysis.

Since switching to ECOCOOL S 761 B, the customer has been free from the fear that pH boosters and biocides could cause staining. Sensitive grades of aerospace aluminum (such as 6061, 7075) can be easily affected by high pH and alkalinity. By eliminating tank side additives, the risk from incorrect doses has prevented random occurrences of staining and improved productivity.”

Within the aerospace industry, titanium is now a much more prevalent raw material and its effective machining could be the difference between success and failure for many sub-contractors. The new “super liners” from Boeing and Airbus use 20% more titanium than previous models especially for areas such as landing gear equipment, wing spars and engine pylons.

The medical manufacturing industry is currently showing the strongest demand for new machine tools, and it is the third largest market for the European machine tool industry. Companies involved in the manufacture of hip and knee joints for example are another major user of titanium for modern technologies.

Again, high productivity rates achieved by fast removal rate machining are key for successful operations and like aerospace, the coolant plays a critical role in this function.

Rogers adds: “the principles associated in achieving effective titanium machining apply in the medical sector in addition to the aerospace industry. We have refined our product offer with the ECOCOOL S 761 designed especially for the medical industry. We have found the same excellent results in terms of tool life, fluid longevity and component finish quality as with the ECOCOOL S 761 B, and the product is used as a rationalisation by many companies because of its ability to work with aluminium (6000 and 7000 series), cobalt chrome and stainless steel.

FUCHS LUBRICANTS (UK) PLC is part of the FUCHS PETROLUB AG group. With over 4,000 employees, 80 operating companies and 51 production plants, we are the world's largest independent lubricant manufacturer.

Formed from the amalgamation of two of the UK's most respected lubricant companies, Silkolene Lubricants and Century Oils, FUCHS has a history in the UK that stretches back over 100 years.

FUCHS is a full line supplier of products developed using all three types of synthetic base and we are now at the cutting edge of synthetic lubricant technology. Our extensive product range includes the PLANTO range of bio-degradable; ester (POE) based products.

Images are available upon request.
 

Fuchs Lubricants
New Century St
Stoke on Trent
Staffs ST1 5HU
Tel: 01782 203700
Email: richard.barrett@fuchs-oil.com
Web: www.fuchslubricants.com