RUDN biologists have studied microorganisms that can survive in metalworking fluids. The results will allow “picking up” bacteria and fungi that can process toxic waste fluids into a harmless product. The results are published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
The Gear Technology can profit from the leverage effect of the optimal cutting and grinding fluid.
Article by Blaser Swisslube
With increased focus on environmental health, the smoke and mist produced during Gear cutting and grinding applications have become one of the main concerns. With the Blaser solutions smoke and mist are significantly better controlled.
For an Indian customer, the metalworking experts from Blaser Swisslube were able to reduce the cut time by 24 percent, lower smoke and mist tremendously and achieve overall cost savings per produced component. A result which is promising for the Asian gear hobbing and grinding production.
“We aim to improve these points in cooperation with our customers,” Punit Gupta, Managing Director West Asia at Blaser Swisslube says. “As higher parameters produce more heat in the machine, we have to find the optimal cutting fluids. With our product range of cutting fluids, we want to deliver an added value where higher cutting parameters in combination with lowest risk of smoke formation are achievable. The focus to reduce smoke production is a need in the area environmental health which the top management needs to focus on”, he adds.
Blaser Swisslube has created already years ago optimal conditions to run machining tests in its Technology Center at headquarters in Hasle-Rüegsau, Switzerland. The Technology Center is unique in the industry and allows Blaser to test recently developed cutting and grinding fluids of an incredibly diverse range of materials, as well as conduct close-to-reality simulation of production situations.
Full Article Available >> https://bit.ly/2YjyBkJ
You might be interested:
Cartesian, 6-AXIS And Scara?
A True Precise, Economical, Future-Oriented 4-AXIS
Milling Instead Of Grinding With The Hand Angle Miller
Blaser Swisslube Discusses How Liquid Tool Achieves the Milestone
WANT MORE INSIDER NEWS? SUBSCRIBE TO OUR DIGITAL MAGAZINE NOW!
Automotive Industry Removing frictional heat is critical in final machining, in order to be as precise as possible. Doing this on an industrial scale is no small feat. Contributed by bielomatik
In mechanical engineering, maximum precision is required for the final machining. Therefore in order to ensure the quality of the workpieces, it is important that as little frictional heat as possible is created and the unavoidable rash is removed.
Halving Energy Costs
A grinding process for the automotive industry is presented that requires minimum amounts of lubricants and coolants. In comparison with the previously standard flood cooling, the new process halves the energy consumption.
The process, called minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), also allows for sustainable production from many perspectives:
Bringing Up To Speed
The Automotive Industry MQL process has been tested for the first time on an industrial scale on the camshaft production line at Volkswagen AG’s factory in Salzgitter, Germany.
The developers optimised the grinding machine, abrasive body and the lubricant feed. The aim was to create no more frictional heat than can be removed via the tool and chips without damage. With this purpose in mind, the manufacturing process for the grinding media was changed, whereby it was furnished with a lasered, micro-structured surface. The lubricant is now sprayed on via a two-channel minimal quantity lubrication system by Automotive Industry bielomatik. This enables the compressed air and lubricant to be optimally mixed.
Transferable Processes
The manufacture of camshafts provided a natural choice as a pilot application because the induction-hardened chromium steels, workpiece geometry and the required precision are very demanding. The new process can also be transferred to other production processes.
The previous results have been very promising. With the two million camshafts produced at Salzgitter every year, the electricity consumption during their production can be reduced by at least 2.4 million kWh. This contrasts with minimal additional investment.
CHECK OUT THESE OTHER ARTICLES
● 4.6% Increase In 2018 Car Sales Expected For Indonesia
● Creaform Expands European Coverage of CUBE-R
● Stability Across A Broad Spectrum
● Walter Tools Releases White Paper on Dynamic Milling
● Dyson Terminates Electric Car Project In Singapore
● Metalworking Fluids Market to Cross US$15B by 2025
● EMO 2019: Mobile Hybrid Machining For The Tool And Die Industry
● Metal Powder Market Forecast To Grow At 3% CAGR Over 2018 to 2028
● Coherent Launches Turnkey Solution for Precision Metal Parts Welding
● Automotive, Electrical/Electronics Industries Driving Global Industrial Robotics Market
WANT MORE INSIDER NEWS? SUBSCRIBE TO OUR DIGITAL MAGAZINE NOW!
FOLLOW US ON: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter
The CyberCon4 sensor system by Heimatec can be used to measure various tool parameters such as operating time, rpm, temperature or humidity. Collected data is forwarded to a monitoring station after a defined time cycle via Bluetooth technology and can then be used for evaluation and maintenance activities.
A moisture sensor detects entry of liquids, such as cooling lubricants, into the tool and the machine, so that major damage or machine failures can be prevented. Monitoring software allows for tools equipped with the sensor system to be monitored, hence maintenance cycles can be managed.
CHECK OUT THESE OTHER ARTICLES
● EuroBLECH 2018: Hypertherm Launches Two Metal Cutting Innovations
● Frost & Sullivan Names Top Innovators In The Global Commercial Aircraft MRO Market
● Mould Technology Solution Centre Groundbreaking Ceremony
● Sandvik Coromant To Showcase Digital Solutions For Machining Processes At EMO 2019
● High Speed Accurate Machining
● ITAP 2019: Driving Success Stories With I4.0 Action Insights
● Hexagon Launches Specialist Sheet Metal CAD for CAM
● Increasing Automation, Connectivity And Energy Efficiency In Metal Cutting
● Hexagon Touch Probe Transforms Thickness Measurement on Machine Tools
● EMO Milano 2021: Meet “the magic world of metalworking”
WANT MORE INSIDER NEWS? SUBSCRIBE TO OUR DIGITAL MAGAZINE NOW!
FOLLOW US ON: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter
The metalworking industry in the Asia Pacific is booming due to a rise in urbanisation, cheaper manufacturing costs and increasing automation in the region. This has in part been driven by strong growth and an optimistic outlook in the Asia Pacific region as it remains an attractive manufacturing hub for regional and global exports.
According to the IDC Manufacturing Insights Spending Guide, manufacturing spending in the Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.8 percent for the 2015-2019 period. Manufacturers are moving towards automation and digitalisation to ensure that their factories are operationally efficient. The rise in intelligent manufacturing calls for more complex machine tools and machining processes, creating a demand in the metalworking industry.
Consequently, the expansion in metalworking has resulted in a demand for metalworking lubricants. The global metalworking fluids market was estimated to be worth US$8.3 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach US$9.74 billion by 2020 based on a CAGR of 3.2 percent from 2015-2020. This growth is in part driven by the use of removal fluid as coolants across the manufacturing industry to maintain optimum temperature and to remove unwanted metal chips during the grinding, drilling, and other processes.
A lot of friction and heat is produced, whether from the simple production of nuts and bolts to more complex, tougher metalworking processes. In addition, these heavy-duty processes require machines to be both precise and efficient in their working, which is why lubricants and coolants play a vital role in the machine’s performance and maintenance.
In addition, companies are looking for ways to reduce costs while increasing profitability and many players in the metalworking industry are adopting green practices, including using vegetable-based coolants, and finding ways to reduce wastage such as implementing recycling programs or reusing coolants instead of disposing of them.
However, not all cutting fluids can be reused as they do not meet the lubrication, cooling and protection requirements of each application for every machine. This is why choosing the right combination of high-quality lubricants – slideway oils, water-soluble cutting fluids and neat cutting oils – ensures machine tools run smoothly for a longer time, and helps to cut costs and reduce wastage, ultimately enabling the machines to be more operationally efficient.
Slideway operations, in particular, require special attention to friction to ensure it runs smoothly and with precision. When moment frictional control is lost, this can cause inaccuracies, ultimately resulting in lost productivity.
Slideways move in a linear motion, therefore the slides would have to stop when they reach the end and move again in the opposite direction. Their stepwise manner of operations would mean that they need to use mixed lubrication to operate efficiently. Consequently, a mixed lubrication setting would make slideways more susceptible to the stick-slip phenomenon.
Stick-slip occurs when there is more static friction than dynamic friction. This causes jerky movements to the slide and the attached work tool. Uncontrolled motion such as this can result in inaccuracies in operations, poor quality and loss in production. To have better friction control, friction modifiers such as special additives are being added to the lubricant.
Slideway Oil
Choosing the right slideway oils enhances the productivity of modern machine shops as they affect both the machining precision and service life of the metalworking fluid. Slideway oils must provide outstanding friction control and excellent separability from aqueous coolants that are commonly used in metalworking operations.
Such lubrication usually happens in an open machine system, which increases the chances of contamination in the coolant circulation system. The contamination between slideway oils and aqueous coolants will eventually form tramp oil.
Tramp oil is a primary contaminant in these systems and causes a lot of problems that affect the working life of the equipment:
Tramp oil can also enter the metalworking fluid in more than one way, including leaks from way, gear, spindle, and hydraulic oils, or oil on parts from previous operations. The more oil is used, the more tramp oil will need to be removed, resulting in an increase in operational and maintenance costs, as well as reduced productivity in the long-run.
Knowing what properties to look out for when choosing slideway lubricants is vital to prevent the formation and contamination of tramp oil.
A key factor is the ability of slideway oils to separate from water-soluble coolants quickly and completely. If the separation between the oil and the coolant is not complete, the performance of the aqueous coolant can be severely affected, which results in high operational costs and unscheduled machine downtime. A slideway oil with good coolant separability properties will also allow machine tools to operate with optimal precision. This will help enhance the life and performance of the aqueous coolant and improve metalworking processes.
While slideway oils are the most common source of oil contamination in aqueous coolants, other lubricants such as hydraulic oil, gear oil and grease can interfere with the life of the coolant. Metalworking operators need to adopt maintenance practices to prevent contamination from interfering with a machine shop’s operational efficiency.
Operators need to monitor coolant concentration on a regular basis to maximise coolant life. This is to ensure that there is no build-up of tramp oil as a result of slideway oil emulsification.
Tramp oil can be detected in the system by using lubricant analysis. Operators can test for coolant concentration by measuring by titration and then compare the results with new, unused coolant to determine the levels of emulsified tramp oil.
Removal of tramp oil is done by automatic skimmers that can be found in many modern machine tools available today. Filter and centrifuges can also be used is larger systems to remove contaminants. Alternatively, contaminants can also be removed manually by using specialised equipment such as an industrial vacuum cleaner.
On top of choosing the right slideway oil and coolant for your metalworking needs, using a single supplier for both metalworking fluids can help limit compatibility and contamination issues. This, combined with proper maintenance and regular testing, play a part in ensuring precise and efficient operations.
Metalworking fluids such as slideway oil and coolants were once considered as a basic necessity to keep machine tools operating. Today, they have become important factors to enable machine shop operators to improve operational efficiency so as to reduce costs and increase profit margins. Metalworking fluids are now considered as liquid tools and they should be treated with the same degree of importance as machines tools since they have a direct impact on productivity and profitability.
While the selection process of slideway oils and coolants is dependent on the variety of applications in machine shop, choosing good quality metalworking fluids will work for most applications such as turning, drilling, milling, forming and stamping. The metalworking industry needs to ensure operational excellence with the right lubrication solutions and proper maintenance allowing them to focus on innovation to capitalise on future growth opportunities.
Manufacturing spending in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 4.8 percent until 2019.
Slick-slip effect causes uncontrolled jerky movements to the slide and the attached work tool. To have better friction control, friction modifiers are added to the lubricant.
Metalworking fluids are considered as liquid tools and can have a direct impact on productivity and profitability.
CHECK OUT THESE OTHER ARTICLES
● One Technology—Many Benefits
● Schmersal Group Establishes Subsidiary In Thailand
● A Look at Walter’s Two-in-One Machining Concept
● Haimer: Safe-Lock
● SCHUNK Releases Versatile Clamping Module For Automated Machine Loading
● Vectorcam: Multiple Clamping Function
● Hainbuch: Maxxos T211 Mandrel
● Heller: HF5500 5-Axis Machining Centre
● Decrease In Machine Tool Orders In Third Quarter 2019
● Hwacheon on VMCs vs. HMCs
WANT MORE INSIDER NEWS? SUBSCRIBE TO OUR DIGITAL MAGAZINE NOW!
FOLLOW US ON: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter
