Lubricant Industry

CHANGES IN TECHNOLOGY AND INCREASED PRESSURE FROM CONSUMERS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY IS CHALLENGING A TRADITIONAL INDUSTRY TO TRANSFORM AND INNOVATE RAPIDLY

- Little Yadav

MACHINES PLAY A VERY IMPORTANT ROLE on the shop floor. From making products to simply doing repetitive work, reducing manpower, role of machines is extremely crucial and hence, it is of utmost importance that these machines are well looked after. Cutting fluids such as coolants and lubricants ensure that the machines operate smoothly, and last long. Manufacturing companies pay special attention towards what kind of coolants and lubricants they invest in as that decision, alone make a lot of difference. While coolants are cutting fluids designed to reduce the effects of heat in machining operations, lubricants are, often, oil-based fluids that are formulated to reduce friction at the tool-chip and tool-work interfaces and reduce temperature among other things.

Coolants provide ideal cooling and friction resistance, prevent corrosion and provide physical, organic and industrial constancy during use. They do not have destructive effect on the environment and do not have disproportionate frothing. Lubricants, on the other hand, have a high boiling point, high viscosity number, are highly resistant towards rust, provide hydraulic constancy, have a low cooling point and help in preventing corrosion.

With times, the trends in machining liquids have also changed. Earlier, neat oils, which contained specialty base oils and additives but did not have any water content, were used for machining. However, over a period of time, operators have substituted neat oils with water soluble oils.

From being cost-effective to getting the best results, the manufacturing heads of companies pay close attention to quality of the cutting fluid that will be used on their shopfloors in order to gain optimum results.