No cutting oil replacement in three years with hard metal grinding
No cutting oil replacement in three years with hard metal grinding
Keywords Cutting oils, Fluid solutions,Seco Tools
Problems associated with the manufacture of carbide drills and cutters, and the hard metal residue from the grinding operations, have been successfully solved, claim Seco Tools of Sweden.
Mosl of the grinding machines at their plant in Norrkoping use neat oil in the tool production process. Each machine was originally equipped with ils own sump and clarification system, with several different manufaclured processes incorporated, including paperband filtration, centrifuges, hydrocyclones and even basic settling tanks.
This installation of mixed systems had serious drawbacks, however, in that the contamination wilh hard metal fines required a high level of maintenance, necessitating frequent sump changes and resulting in considerable loss of production owing to machine down-times. The costs for disposal of waste oil were exacerbated by those for the replacement with new grinding fluids. Additional waste materials were also generated by the paperbond fillers, from which it was not even possible to recover the carbide residue.
According to Seco, all of these problems were successfully resolved when it replaced the individual machine sumps with a single high capacity microparticle separation unit, or Sedimentor, which is available in the UK from Fluid Solutions of Manchester(Plate 3).
Plate 3 A sedimentor installation typical of that supplied for the hard metal grinding plant of Seco Tools in Sweden which now benefits from the highly efficient neat oil clarification installation
All existing sumps and clarification equipment were replaced with a model VXTS-A Sedimentor incorporating a single return tank and pump with feed and return lines to each machine. This equipment was rated for automatic 24 hour operation, with a neat oil throughput of 750 litres/min and a separation level down to 3 microns.
It is reported that the installation has been working successfully for three years, with the purity of the fluid being maintained to such a high standard that there has been no need for neat oil replacement since installation. Carbide waste is now automatically separated and collected in 200 litre barrels. This is recycled to increase the plant efficiency, which has been even further enhanced by the fact that machines remain clean due to the purity of the grinding fluid, leading to minimal maintenance costs.
Seco also states that waste disposal costs and machine downtime losses have been eliminated. There are no neat oil losses, so renewal costs no longer occur. The 4000 litre capacity of the Sedimentor also guarantees a stable fluid temperature, reducing energy consumption, leading to a very lean and efficient plant operation.
Further details from Fluid Solutions, Tel: +44 (0) 161 370 6293; Fax: +44 (0) 161 370 6293.
