You don’t need a degree in Organic Chemistry to understand the differences in your shops’ metalcutting fluid base oils and what they mean to you.
A recent discussion on PMPA’s member’s only Technical Listserve centered around the issue of foaming in our machines and its relation to the type of cutting oil selected for use in our CNC and Swiss machines.
John Wiley, Business Development Manager for PMPA Technical Member Qualichem, Inc. contributed a nice piece of sensemaking regarding the role that the selection of base oil plays in the foaming we encounter on the machine.
“In this picture you can clearly see the differences in a base oil’s tendency to foam. These are pure base oils, nothing added. Poly Alpha Olefin (PAO) and Gas To Liquid (GTL) synthetics are identical, while the two mineral oils foam considerably more than the synthetic stocks. If you are a shop that has yet to experiment with new cutting oil technology, now is the time. The benefits are firmly within your budgets. If you are doing medical work, the GTL oils are ideal. If you are running lights out operations, the GTL are ideal. If you want a cleaner shop, cleaner machines and cleaner parts, GTL is ideal.”
John went on to describe the scenarios where PAO’s and GTL’s would be expected to be the best choice for certain operations (like high pressure pumps) and applications, as well as compared the economics of PAO’s and GTL’s. Our members got actionable insight as to the effects of the base oil in their metalcutting fluids in terms of both performance and economics.
You may not know a lot about Organic Chemistry, but the photo above is worth a semester in class (as well as a thousand words!) to show us why now is the time to consider Synthetic base oils in our CNC and High Pressure coolant metalcutting operations.
Qualichem,Inc.
Tag: Oil foaming in high pressure pump applications