Castrol supports in-house fluid management for Callender

Citation

(2005), "Castrol supports in-house fluid management for Callender", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 57 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2005.01857ead.003

Castrol supports in-house fluid management for Callender

Castrol supports in-house fluid management for Callender

Keywords: Fluid equipment components, Fluid engineering

Although the machine shop at Callender Aeropart manages its own cutting fluids, it does rely heavily on Castrol's support in areas such as stock control, customer trials, oil analysis and waste management.

Callender Aeropart Ltd, part of the RLC Engineering Group, is a subcontract engineering company specialising in the production of precision components for high integrity industries such as aerospace and power generation. The company's core competency is the manufacture of complex engineered components such as turbine and compressor airfoils for civil and military aircraft engines, and power stations.

The machine shop at Callender's Accrington, UK, factory houses around 65 multiaxis CNCs, grinding and milling machines and employs 250 people. The airfoils that are machined there from titanium, aluminium and steel, range in size from small components that will fit in the hand up to large diameter integrally bladed rotors that are five-axis milled from solid titanium.

Callender operates its own fluid management programme but, as spokesman Alan Thorburn explains, to ensure that everything runs smoothly the company also has a long-term agreement with Castrol covering the supply of all cutting fluids, lubricants and greases, and encompassing agreed service levels, pricing, product delivery, technical support and technology improvements.

Castrol area manager Paul Rahman provides product and technical support, visiting the machine shop every week to check stock levels, deal with any issues and take coolant samples for analysis in Castrol's laboratory.

Alan Thorburn says the regular coolant analysis reports ensure that the optimum concentration is maintained to keep cutting fluids in peak condition.

Since changing from neat oils to water-based coolants for health and safety and environmental reasons the company now use three Castrol fluids which, according to Alan, have helped to make the machine shop much cleaner and the working environment much more operator friendly.

Callender uses Hysol ALS and Hysol EPS for the heavy duty machining of titanium, which represents a majority of the work of the machine shop, and Hysol X for grinding operations. All the fluids have customer approvals (Plate 2).

Plate 2 The Callender Aeropart machine shop which uses Castrol cutting fluids, lubricants and greases

When new components come into the workshop for machining Castrol is also involved, with Paul Rahman advising on coolant selection, arranging trials and seeking customer approval if required. Quoting one recent example, he says a trial using Hysol EPS resulted in estimated improvements in tool life of between 15 and 50 per cent, prompting further trials that are currently in progress to evaluate the improvements more closely.

Castrol also keeps Callender in touch with new developments in coolant management and equipment technology and has recommended a centralised coolant distribution system and a swarf management system.

A treatment plant for the separation of the oil component from waste coolant is currently being installed. The waste water from this plant can then be discharged into the foul sewer. As well as reducing waste and cutting disposal costs, Alan Thorburn says this plant has the potential to save £20,000 a year and provide real environmental improvements. The new equipment will also make a significant contribution to the work Callender is doing to achieve IS014001.

Other areas where Castrol has contributed to the day-to-day operation of the machine shop have included awareness training for operators covering health and safety and skin care issues.

For further information, contact: E-mail: thrussc@castrol.com or web site: www.castroladvantage.com