Artikel i Automotive Manufacturing Solutions (Engelsk)

Many metal processing companies, ignore the significance of good and clean coolant, even though they know perfectly well that it is a very necessary element to maintain effective production and an element affecting the environment badly.

Over a period of years a lot of people experience “hidden” costs in the form of stopped production, high tool costs, unnecessary cleaning, high disposal costs, unnecessarily high scrapping percentages etc.
An ACCUSTRIP full flow central plant is cleaning emulsions and cutting oils effectively, and solves thereby all of these problems at a cost of just a fraction of the investment of CNC-machines.

Technologically ACCUSTRIP, 5700 Svendborg, Denmark is world-wide leading in the field of cleaning emulsions and cutting oils. The reason is the patented technology to separate oil even in turbulent fluids and in full flow.
Our systems have a very high performance in relation to fluid volume and are very stable. In the systems, the backward and forward flow of the liquid is under pressure, and the liquid is constantly in movement. This reduces the risk of precipitation and the growth of microorganisms. Our users experience therefore considerable operating advantages on machines. For the sake of good order, we would like to stress that our plant cannot cure a “sick” coolant, but maintain and extend the lifetime of a good sound coolant.

Many companies such as Rolls Royce – who right now is in the process of installing the 5th full flow central plant in one of their production sites – and companies like Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, Volvo Aero, Danfoss, Sandvik and Bang & Olufsen have already seen this in real life. For those of you who invest in our system, this means that you are guaranteed in the best possible way against production stoppage and unwanted development of bacteria in the emulsion. You get an effective cleanliness of your coolant - so that you can use your time on production - your livelihood.

The plain facts show why it is that way.
The largest of our full flow central plants work with a tank volume of 15,300 L and a continuous filtering- and oilseparations capacity with stainless steel of 9,600 L/min. The natural evaporation and the liquid that inevitably filters away with the metal chips and other impurities means that you have to supplement the fluid volume with fresh concentration and fresh piping water. As ACCUSTRIP’s fluid volume is typically 1/10 of conventional systems, this means that with this supplement, a much higher level of fluid volume in an ACCUSTRIP plant is always fresh. The risk of growth of bacteria is thereby constantly reduced considerably.
Furthermore ACCUSTRIP removes on its large plants continuously almost 100 % of all free low viscous tramp oils with a specially patented technique and 95 % of all particles down to 30 µm. All processes is 100 % automatic. And remember: Tramp oil is food for microorganismens and can make a sump an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Bacteria populations can double every 30 minutes and if allowed to multiply, microorganismens will ruin the fluid.
With an ACCUSTRIP full flow central plant you will experience a clear improvement in productivity, huge savings, take care of the environment and improve your associates working day.

These days the companies of the world are in the focus with responsibility and concern about the environment , and your company may with its initiative in making efficiency and recycling of emulsion have an outstanding opportunity to stand as a frontrunner.
The experiences from other companies shows, that concern about the environment and focus on efficiency perfectly well can walk hand in hand.
We owe that to the next generation, too!

And it is not just hot air!
You have not spend many minutes on the premises of the world’s leading manufacturer of marine engines, Rolls Royce, Bergen in Norway, before you clearly realizes what Maintenance manager, Willy Andre Vedå thinks about an ACCUSTRIP central plant.
“We are an old company short of space, and today we have installed our machines very compact in order to get many machines in on a small area”, says Willy. He points to the row of the 11 CNC-machines, which is running 24/7. “When we decided on a central plant, it was of high priority with a very compact plant, as we are short of space”.
Willy Andre Vedå had, however other considerations as well. In his job at Rolls Royce, he has a big responsibility.”Our mission is first of all to manufacture the best products in the world, but I must of course combine this with an ambitious focus on environment as well as on efficiency. “We do not want to loose competitiveness on any of these fields, so the choice was easy”.
ACCUSTRIP was the choice, and Willy Andre Vedå are today very satisfied with the choice.

“The plant from ACCUSTRIP fitted perfectly well to the limited space available, the plant simply does not need much space compared to competing plants. On top we have today a plant which purifies and feeds all our 11 machines with coolant, and in case of further machines, the plant can handle this as well, he smiles.

He is cautious to speak about the cost savings, but he smiles and continues “it is a Win Win situation, I suppose”. Thereby he points to the fact that the full flow central plant from ACCUSTRIP during 2 years until today has been running irreproachable with the same coolant as at the time it was filled on the plant. “Earlier on we had to change the coolant twice a year, and if you include the cost of machines at full stop, the cost savings is easy to see on efficiency as well as on environment.
He goes more into details: “ I think it is a matter of course that when you invest a lot of money in machines you also must think on how to operate them in an optimal way. For us it is very simply: if we did not have an ACCUSTRIP plant, we would work more inefficient and consequently we should have more machines”. In earlier times we had to accept that many items would have to be remanufactured, because they were damaged by impurities in the emulsion. “This is today almost history”, he ends.

The function of a coolant is
· Cooling
· Lubrication
· Corrosive protection
· Removal of metal chips

As a water mixed emulsion are cooling 2.5 times better than pure oil, this is used in 80-90 % of all machining operations. But cooling can be overdone.
Many machining operations creating metal chips are NOT a cutting operation but are doing a plastic deformation in the item thereby creating a metal chip. The experience with high pressure tools like “Jet Stream” (Seco Tools) or the ones from Sandvik Coromant is that exactly in the breaking point between the item and the deformed metal chip the optimal temperature should hold approximately 800°C (source: Seco Tools, Denmark). The reason is of course that the deformation process runs easier with high temperature, but if temperature goes too high, this will quickly ruin the tools and decrease precision on the item.
The actual conditions would have to be brought inline with the actual tool, speed and machine operation, but ACCUSTRIP have HPU’s (high pressure unit pumps) which works very well with these new high pressure tools. The basis for implementing these tools are, however, CLEAN emulsion.
High pressure tools demands in the breaking zone very precise emulsion spraying through small nozzles with a diameter of 1 mm and very close to the breaking point of the metal chip. Further the metal chip should break in order to immediately be removed from the breaking zone.
Finally various pressures are desirable for various machining operations - and not allways just exstreme high pressure.
The HPU’s of ACCUSTRIP meet all these demands. One HPU is working with up to 8 different pressures that are controlled automatically from the M-codes of the machine and programmed ahead of the operation. When the actual operation starts the pressure from the HPU to the machine is within seconds automatically adjusted to the desired pressure.

High pressure systems are able to improve machine performance substantially – 25 % or more are not just fantacy – but seen in real life.

And if the high pressure creates very small particles of emulsion inclusive small free oil particles, then this is not a problem to an ACCUSTRIP full flow central plant. In the oil separator the small free oil particles are accelerated into oil drops and skimmed away on the surface – this is among the reasons why ACCUSTRIP is something special!