Fluid solves a serious swarf problem

A Castrol cutting fluid specially formulated for machining aluminium has helped a leading automotive component manufacturer reduce downtime, improve tool life and save on coolant costs.

A Castrol cutting fluid specially formulated for machining aluminium has helped a leading automotive component manufacturer reduce downtime, improve tool life and save on coolant costs.

Montupet (UK), a member of the French Montupet group, specialises in the design and manufacture of aluminium components.

The plant, located near Belfast in Northern Ireland, employs 1000 people and manufactures over 5000 aluminium cylinder heads and 4000 alloy wheels per day for major European automotive manufacturers including Ford, PSA and Renault.

Cylinder head machining is carried out on a Lamb Technicon transfer line, which was purpose-built for Montupet.

After the casting process, the roughcast parts are deflashed and heat treated.

The cylinder head castings then enter the transfer line, which carries out the first set of operations, including cubing, drilling inner and outer bolt holes to retain the head to the block and boring the holes for injectors.

The machine, which has 12 workstations, accommodates thirty components at any one time - twelve being worked on and the rest moving at 30s intervals from workstation to workstation.

Cutting fluid for the transfer line is supplied from a 30,000-litre tank.

As it circulates, it passes through a two-stage filtration process.

The coolant is also irrigated via a weekend pump when the line is not in use.

In such a highly concentrated and fast-moving environment every constituent - including the coolant - plays a vital role in maintaining the flow of components, as Montupet production engineer Andy Chambers explains.

"We had been using a product from another manufacturer and had experienced a problem with swarf floating on the surface and forming a dense bed, which eventually sank to the bottom of the tank and clogged the conveyor system causing a great deal of down time".

"We contacted Castrol through Servoll, its sole authorised distributor in Northern Ireland, and asked them to recommend a product that would allow swarf and fines to sink immediately rather than staying on the surface".

Castrol sent a specialist to investigate the problem and followed up with a recommendation to use Alusol XT, a chlorine-free cutting fluid that has been specifically formulated for difficult aluminium machining operations such as tapping and reaming.

Says Chambers: "We ran a three month trial with the fluid and the improvement was immediate.

It solved the problem and in August 2001 we changed over".

He reports that besides the savings in downtime, Alusol XT has also contributed to increased tool life on some tooling.

He is also impressed with Alusol XT's stability, saying that, while the previous coolant had to be changed every six months they are still using the same Alusol XT that was installed in August 2001, with no loss of performance.

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