Coolant Maintenance & Recycling Case Study

LARGE DEVELOPER AND MANUFACTURER OF CUTTING AND TRIMMING TOOLS FOR FOOD PROCESSING.

Fluid Service Technologies Survey
A leading developer and manufacturer of cutting and trimming tools for food processing and industrial applications was dealing with several issues with their fluid management. They had trouble maintaining consistent coolant concentration causing tool performance problems and high coolant usage. Additionally some operators were experiencing dermatitis. The organization was also searching for better ways to track inventory, schedule machine cleanings and create more accountability in their fluid control. Additionally, the customer was spending nearly 300 hours per month on machine maintenance. This caused significant machine downtime as well as high labor costs as the machine operators were performing the maintenance.

The customer decided to bring in FST, experts in coolant management, to do a full site analysis. FST found that each individual operator was responsible for their own machine fluid and lubrication monitoring. The site analysis also uncovered inventory control, tracking and fluid maintenance issues. FST’s solution was to have a service technician work on-site to create a fluid management program that would address each of these challenges.

Fluid Service Technologies Process improvements
Result: As part of the Fluid Management Program the customer implemented, FST provided special support on fluid testing to reduce the number of different coolants being used on-site. This consolidation of coolants allowed for additional programs, such as recycling, to be utilized and further reduced the customer’s coolant spend. In addition to the labor savings and coolant consolidation, proper monitoring and maintenance of the
cutting fluid provided them with an additional savings of approximately $9,000 over the first three months.
Along with the Fluid Management Program, FST introduced TechTool™, a proprietary app that brings actionable information and insight to help drive down fluid cost and increase operational effectiveness. With this tool, FST’s service techs logged daily concentration and coolant checks, monitored problem machines, streamlined inventory control and allow for visible reporting and traceability. TechTool™ allowed FST to monitor inventory and schedule machine cleanouts to avoid unplanned machine downtimes as well as effectively monitor coolant concentrations to stop problems from developing ahead of time. After enacting FST’s Fluid Management program, the customer found that FST was able to accomplish more coolant handling functions in less time.

The customer saved $14,493 in labor costs over a three month period by switching to FST’s service program.