Cosworth Racing awards oil care management and coolant supply contract to de la Pena lubricants

Citation

(1999), "Cosworth Racing awards oil care management and coolant supply contract to de la Pena lubricants", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 51 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.1999.01851cab.012

Cosworth Racing awards oil care management and coolant supply contract to de la Pena lubricants

Cosworth Racing awards oil care management and coolant supply contract to de la Pena lubricants

Keywords Awards, Coolants, Oils

Following an initial contract to supply cutting fluids for two new Matsuura machining centres, de la Pena Lubricants now supply all coolants and lubricants to Cosworth Racing's busy machine shop.

Cosworth Racing, part of the Ford-owned Cosworth group, builds a greater variety of racing engines than any other manufacturer and, in the current season, is running engines in Formula One, IndyCar and Class One Touring Car racing. The engines are manufactured at the company's Northampton factory, where the machine shop is staffed by 90 highly skilled operators and accommodates around 50 machine tools ranging from large CNC machining centres to lathes, grinders and milling machines. The development of motor racing engines is a continuous process so the machine shop needs to be able to respond quickly to new designs and design changes at any time throughout the season. Every aspect of the operation has therefore to give maximum performance. When, in 1996, Cosworth Racing acquired two new Matsuura machining centres it began using the de la Pena product, which was supplied with the machines and was recommended by Matsuura's UK distributor, Beaumont Machine Tools. It continued to use coolants from its existing supplier in all other machines. However, it was found that, compared with the de la Pena product, the fluid from the existing supplier broke down very quickly when machining particular alloys. As Cosworth was keen to rationalise coolant usage, de la Pena was approached to recommend a single coolant that would work effectively in all the machines and with the range of metals which were being used.

Following a comprehensive audit by de la Pena, which included tests on local water supplies, etc., formulation TP113 was recommended. De la Pena then worked with Cosworth's operators to monitor the performance of the coolant, which was found to be excellent, especially on surface finish. In addition, coolant life was extended, and no problems were experienced in machining any alloys. An additional bonus was that several operators who had been sensitive to skin problems with other metalworking fluids have experienced no problems since working with de la Pena coolants. De la Pena now supplies all of Cosworth Racing's coolant and lubricant requirements.

De la Pena also operates an oil care management programme, regularly monitoring coolants throughout the machine shop. All the machines have individual record sheets and a de la Pena engineer calls regularly to check concentration, pH levels and condition of the coolant.