force. We are converting horsepower into acoolant battering ram.”Mar-Tec Products (Madison Heights, Mich)supplies the full line of chip handling equip-ment as well as coolant pumps to high-vol-ume manufacturers. Their Knoll KTS triplescrew pump is supplied on many machinetools as original equipment. Sales are 300 to500 pumps a year, with many to engine andtransmission plants, according to Andy Hatchof Mar-Tec. It comes in many sizes and typi-cally supplies 92 gpm with a maximum pres-sure of 1438 psi. The unique silicon carbidehousing and hardened rotors create anextremely wear-resistant pump that is said tooutlast other models by 50%. Also supplied byMar-Tec as part of a system is the KnollVacuum Rotation Coolant Filter, which pullscontaminated fluid through a permanent
media
filter by means of a vacuum pump. Themodel VRF 250 has 25-micron filtration, 80-gpm capability, and supports 2000-psi pres-sure.Wanner Engineering (Minneapolis) sup-plies the line of Hydra-Cell pumps to machinetool OEMs. Their high pressure machine toolcoolant pumps are used in a variety of chip-making operations and also in grinding toprevent wheel loading and minimize down-time for dressing. The Hydra-Cell is a high-pressure diaphragm pump and is said to bedesigned to handle the abrasive particlesfound in machine tool coolant that wear outcentrifugal, screw, or piston pumps. Sincethe Hydra-Cell is a positive displacement
pump, you can change the flow rate by chang-ing the speed of the pump shaft. All bearingsurfaces are isolated from the fluid beingpumped. The pump does not use the coolantto cool or lubricate the pump, so virtually anytype of coolant can be handled.Brittani Technologies (Delta, Ohio) retro-fits their coolant system to traditional multi-spindle automatics, solving some problemsof heat, birdnest chip accumulation, andachieving a productivity increase of about20%. James W. McConkey Jr, director of oper-ations, says their system “allows the volumeof coolant flowing through the orifices to beaimed directly at the cutting surface.”Toolholder attachments direct the flow.Slabe Machine Products (Willoughby,Ohio), a job shop that operates screwmachines and CNC turning machines, has
developed its own product, the MaxCool toolattachments and toolholders, to enhance theperformance of high-pressure coolant sys-tems. According to Brendan Slabe, aiming themachine’s normal coolant lines carrying high-pressure coolant is not effective. So specialtooling is needed to accurately deliver thehigh pressure coolant. The few custom tool-holders developed for this purpose areexpensive and would have required them tosideline their existing investment in tool-holders. Slabe says, “We therefore werelooking to utilize high pressure coolant with-out losing the investment we had alreadymade in all of our toolholders. We came tothe conclusion that nobody made affordable
custom tooling designed to bring coolantdirectly to the point of the cut.”Slabe developed MaxCool attachments,that bolt to standard toolholders yet deliverthe correct angle of coolant flow exactly tothe cutting tool/workpiece junction. Theattachments direct the coolant stream at thepoint that will optimize the cutting of an ODtool. Since the attachments remain fixed on atoolholder, this forever eliminates having toposition or adjust the coolant lines. Unlikesome other custom toolholders for high-pressure, says Slabe, the MaxCool holders donot incorporate a coolant nozzle in the bodyof the tool. Instead MaxCool toolholders uti-lize bolt-on attachments and thus do notincrease the width of industry standard tool-holders. They extend less than 1/2 in. furtherthan normal toolholders but do not limit theallowable X travel of the machine.” Theresults of using these holders, says Slabe,are “smaller and more controllable chips,longer tool life, and overall better processcontrol.”Slabe believes that quite a few users ofhigh pressure pumps do not get their fullbenefit. “They wind up pointing standarddiameter tubing (or plastic Loc-Lines), sothat the coolant stream is simply pointing atthe tool like a normal coolant hose. Theresult is that a large percentage of the addi- tional cooling and chipbreaking effects arelost, and the manufacturer waves goodbye tothe majority of the benefits that they expect-ed to see with the addition of their high pres-sure coolant pump. ”Slabe says that whenthey were experimenting with their tooldesigns to achieve the best chip breakingaction they “changed the color and consis-tency of a chip by altering the angle of aMaxCool coolant nozzle by as little as 5°. Wechanged a chip that was discolored, long andstringy to one that was tightly wrapped, cold,and small. MaxCool attachments position thecoolant stream at the exact chipbreaking flattrajectory that will maximize the perfor-mance of any OD cutting tool.” These attach-ments can be purchased as units able to beattached to existing toolholders or completewith many standard size and geometry tool-holders. (See their website at www.slabema-chine.com.)
Machine Shop Guide Web Archive-October 2001
