OVERVIEW
A&M EDM Ltd is an award-winning engineering solutions company offering precision engineering services to aerospace, F1 and other sectors. A&M EDM also manufactured ventilator components as suppliers to the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium.
It has 57 CNCs machining a variety of materials including stainless steel, mild steel, aluminium, Inconel, titanium and exotics, and produces highly bespoke, short runs of components for its customers.

MSC provides A&M EDM with best-practice engineering support and frequent onsite visits that proactively identify ways to help them optimise their processes and achieve their business goals.

 
CHALLENGE:
Materials varied in use and would range from Mild Steel to Titanium and often in small batches. The usage of the current coolant appeared high with approx. 10 IBC per year in use. A&M EDM was looking for a manufacturer who could support with regular servicing and offer advice on the range of materials being machined.

RESULTS:
The ULTRACUT EVO 255 proved to be versatile and suitable for a wide variety of machining applications and materials.
The solution has more than halved A&M EDM's intermediate bulk container (IBC) annual consumption from 10 to 5 containers. Furthermore, it has also improved machining quality, delivering a potential tool spend reduction of around 40%.

APPROACH
ROCOL began analysing A&M EDM's coolant consumption with a review of current materials and applications while taking samples from active machining operations. These were tested in ROCOL's laboratory and a comprehensive report on the current product, with details such as wear ratio, dilution and usage, was produced.

The analysis concluded that the coolant usage was much higher than it should be and that A&M EDM needed a versatile, high-performance coolant that would deliver consistent usage and quality results on a range of different materials.

Together with ROCOL, we presented our findings to A&M EDM along with a proposal for an alternative coolant that was more suitable for their requirements. We also provided evidence that demonstrated a cost saving in volume consumed as well as an extension to tool lifetime.

SOLUTION
The product recommended was ULTRACUT EVO 255 Metalworking Coolant, an extreme pressure (EP) soluble oil-water mix cutting fluid.

ULTRACUT EVO 255 is formulated to give a long and predictable sump life and provides extra performance in medium and severe cutting operations on a wide variety of ferrous and non-ferrous materials.

In addition to providing the coolant solution, the MSC team works with ROCOL to deliver specialist and ongoing maintenance and support to A&M EDM, which covers a range of services and periodic analysis to reduce fluid consumption, extend tool life and reduce downtime. This helps A&M EDM ensure the product continues to perform to its optimum level, no matter what materials are machined.

RESULTS
The ULTRACUT EVO 255 proved to be versatile and suitable for a wide variety of machining applications and materials, and would also deliver a significant saving in the volume of coolant required.

Analysis showed that with the ULTRACUT EVO 255 solution dilution levels improved from 19:1 to 40:1, reducing A&M EDM's consumption from 41,000 litres per annum to 20,048 litres per annum*. The reduced consumption rate outweighed the increase in cost per unit, resulting in a significant cost saving of £16,900 per year.

The solution has more than halved A&M EDM's intermediate bulk container (IBC) annual consumption from 10 to 5 containers. Furthermore, it has also improved machining quality, delivering a potential tool spend reduction of around 40%.

A&M EDM is also benefiting from the savings delivered by reducing waste and disposal costs from needing fewer IBCs.

Stuart Talbot, production director at A&M EDM, said: "We are delighted that MSC and ROCOL have come in and analysed our coolant consumption and recommended a solution that will reduce this to half the amount we were using previously.

"They invested time in understanding what our objectives were and demonstrated a commitment and determination to help us achieve them. We look forward to an ongoing relationship where MSC and ROCOL will continue to assess and benchmark our machines regularly, helping us to achieve further efficiency and productivity gains."

*usage reduction is on the neat concentrate used to produce the usable cutting fluid for the machines.