Wanting to improve the working environment at its Hyde, Cheshire manufacturing facility, Coleherne Ltd turned to Jemtech (UK) to provide a two-fold solution to removing the problem of coolant mist in the air.
The products machined by Coleherne require some heavy-duty metalcutting to take place, and the previous cutting fluid was generating steam from the heat created in that process. This then became a ‘smog’ that hung in the air of the factory. Obviously a health & safety issue, Coleherne turned to Jemtech to supply an alternative solution to the problem.
The installation of Cleanmist oil air mist filters and use of Blaser’s B-cool cutting fluids has significantly improved the working environment at fluid-filled hydrodynamic bearing manufacturer, Coleherne. A further bonus is that this combination of cutting fluid and filtration is allowing Coleherne to increase cutting data, reduce cycle times and improve overall delivery performance for its customers in the oil & gas, power generation, and pump & compressor sectors.
The addition of Cleanmist oil air mist filters has helped to drastically reduce the amount of mist escaping to the atmosphere, while the use of Blaser Swisslube B-Cool 655 water miscible cutting fluid allowed cutting data to be increased without any detrimental effect on cutting tool performance. “As a business the cost of manufacture is extremely important, but there are hidden costs that need to be taken into account. Since making this switch to Blaser cutting fluids and the Cleanmist filters, the health and safety and working environment aspects of our business have improved. This has a cost benefit to the business as we have eliminated the skin issues that we had before the change, people are not taking time off as a result and the morale on the shopfloor has improved,” says Jeremy Taylor, Coleherne’s Machine Shop Manager.
“By converting Coleherne to the Blaser B-Cool 655 mineral oil-based cutting fluid we enabled them to increase cutting data on some of the materials that they are machining,” says Alan Dalton, Director, Jemtech (UK). “As it is designed to handle heavy machining applications the amount of mist produced under these conditions is reduced, with the Cleanmist units, and their patented Venturi system, easily able to deal with what remains. The fact that Coleherne is now reporting few, if any, skin issues is also testament to the development of cutting fluids by Blaser that do not contain EP additives with chemicals such as sulphur, Chlorine, zinc or Phosphor in them.”
In addition to providing the cutting fluid and mist extraction Jemtech (UK) can also provide management and monitoring of the fluids, including weekly dip slide tests to comply with Health and Safety Executive guidelines, as well as its machine tool valet service, whereby a service engineer will clean the machine’s coolant system and ensure that it is operating at its optimum.