INDUSTRIAL LUBRICANTS ARE MORE INVOLVED IN METALWORKING APPLICATIONS THAN JUST LUBRICATING

Industrial Lubricants have an influence beyond lubricating the moving parts of a machine tool. Since they are applied directly in the area where coolant flushes the machine, the lube oil will flow into the coolant and end up as a tramp oil. Some industrial lubricants are immiscible in water and stay as a free oil. These can become a problem if they exceed 2 percent of the volume of fluid. The free oils plate-out on the workpiece, burn at the point of work and change the chemistry of the coolant. As a free oil there are positive steps which can be taken to mechanically remove the free tramp oils to keep them to less then 1-2 percent of the volume.

If the industrial lubricant is emulsified into the waterbase fluid by either the emulsifier in the coolant or the blended emulsifier in the industrial lubricant it is no longer a free oil and creates a larger problem to remove it. As a oil in solution it cause a breakdown of the of the coolant chemistry faster that a free tramp oil. Separation is more difficult.

Harrigan Solutions understands the difference and has the know-how to handle either variety of tramp oil. They sell centrifuges and all types of oil/water separators. For more information contact me, Bill Harrigan at 1-888-685-9603. My email is bharrigan@harrigansolutions.com. The website is www.harrigansolutions.com/index.htm.