Product category:
Lubricants
News Release from: Castrol UK | Subject: Carecut and Carelube
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 18 October 2002
Carecut saves on coolant and cleaning
bills
Running two new sliding-head CNC machines at speed with a conventional chlorine-free mineral oil caused PDP Engineering serious overheating problems.
Running two new sliding-head CNC machines at speed with a conventional chlorine-free mineral oil caused PDP Engineering serious overheating problems, leading to shorter tool life and lower productivity Then a fire in one of the machines prompted a change of fluid to Castrol Carecut
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 15 May 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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The machine shop at Birmingham-based PDP Engineering operates 12 fixed-head and two new sliding-head CNC machines and employs 60 people.
They work mainly with low alloy and mild steel, and occasionally with cast iron, aluminium and stainless steel, producing specialised components for customers including MG Rover, BMW, Land-Rover, and Borg-Warner.
Says machine shop manager Scott Wills commenting on the change to a Castrol synthetic fluid: "Running the two new sliding-head CNC machines with a conventional neat oil caused problems from the start - overheating significantly reduced tool life, generated a lot of smoke and we even had a small fire in one machine.
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Productivity was also affected as both tools and machines were designed for high speed operation and the cutting fluid wasn't".
With the cheaper coolant limiting machine performance and productivity, Wills called in Castrol.
Says Castrol's Midland sales manager Carl Sault: "We recommended one of our high-performance synthetic fluids - Carecut ES2 - to improve machine performance.
And we suggested that PDP use Carelube 68 slide oil which, unlike conventional slide oils doesn't contaminate the sump as a tramp oil".
Using Carecut ES2 certainly transformed the performance of the new CNC machines.
Says Wills: "Tools and machines are now able to work at optimum speeds, tool life has tripled on drilling operations and our coolant consumption has reduced by 50% - more than covering the difference in cost of the Carecut and promising considerable long-term savings".
He adds that further savings on the machines' bag filters, which are now lasting three months compared to one week with the previous coolant, have already paid for the new coolant.
Other improvements include better visibility for operators, who also prefer its handleability, and better performance in the machines' Cool-Blast delivery system - all points that Sault puts down to Carecut's ability to maintain its consistency and clarity under pressure.
And Scott estimates that the combination of Carecut and Carelube slide oil is providing a much longer sump life for the coolant, which could reduce a six-monthly cleaning operation to an annual one.
Summing up the change to Carecut and Carelube, Wills says Castrol's experience really has proved that it's possible to buy more expensive oils and still save money.
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