Portchester Engineering
Portchester fit and save with the Coolant Saver
At Portchester Engineering the award-winning Wogaard Coolant Saver has improved housekeeping, reduced waste costs and simplified swarf disposal. Not bad for a unit that costs just a few hundred Pounds and takes minutes to install.
Originally established in 1959, Portchester Engineering has changed significantly since Sam Morrison took over the reins as managing director in 2002. With the support of company director, Ben Creese, she has systematically replaced all of the company’s conventional machine tools with high precision CNC machine tools from Mazak.
As you would expect with customers in the satellite and space industry, oil and gas, marine racing and super yachts, MoD and defence, and power generation sectors, tolerances are tight; down to +/- 8 micron on shaft work for the satellite industry with components inspected on the company’s CMM.
Materials often tackled include duplex stainless steel, various grades of aluminium, brass and bronze, molybdenum and titanium, as well as a material new to the company, tantalum. “A highly-corrosive resistant, inert material that is often used as a platinum substitute, it will be used for R&D work for a customer in the space sector is working on as an R&D project,” explains Ben Creese.
With four Mazak CNC machine tools installed, packed to the gunnels is a nautical term that suits the company, with every piece of productive space occupied. “We selected the Mazak Integrex 200 to produce some of our components and it effectively doubled what we could do, because of the one-hit machining capability. It was so easy to program that we decided to invest in other Mazak machines as and when our older CNC machine tools needed replacing,” says Sam Morrison.
As you would expect with customers in the satellite and space industry, oil and gas, marine racing and super yachts, MoD and defence, and power generation sectors, tolerances are tight; down to +/- 8 micron on shaft work for the satellite industry with components inspected on the company’s CMM.
Materials often tackled include duplex stainless steel, various grades of aluminium, brass and bronze, molybdenum and titanium, as well as a material new to the company, tantalum. “A highly-corrosive resistant, inert material that is often used as a platinum substitute, it will be used for R&D work for a customer in the space sector is working on as an R&D project,” explains Ben Creese.
With four Mazak CNC machine tools installed, packed to the gunnels is a nautical term that suits the company, with every piece of productive space occupied. “We selected the Mazak Integrex 200 to produce some of our components and it effectively doubled what we could do, because of the one-hit machining capability. It was so easy to program that we decided to invest in other Mazak machines as and when our older CNC machine tools needed replacing,” says Sam Morrison.
|
When the machines are running the swarf conveyors are also operating. This created a problem for the precision engineering company as the swarf bins would fill with coolant dragged out with the chips that would subsequently leak out onto the shopfloor.
The solution came when Jason Hutt, Director of Sales, Wogaard, introduced the award-winning Coolant Saver to the company. “Initially, we purchased one unit to evaluate it, the results were very good and now they are fitted to all of our machine tools,” recalls Sam Morrison. |
|
Ben Creese fitted the units as they are straightforward to install. He says: “It didn’t take me very long to put them on. Each one takes about 10 minutes to fit, and the unit comes with details instructions so anyone with an ounce of technical knowledge can do it. Once the unit is plumbed in it just works.”
Sam Morrison adds: “We no longer have any wasted coolant in the swarf bins. Prior to installing the Coolant Savers we had to try and get the coolant dragged out of the machine tool back out of the bin before we tipped it into the skip.”
Sam Morrison adds: “We no longer have any wasted coolant in the swarf bins. Prior to installing the Coolant Savers we had to try and get the coolant dragged out of the machine tool back out of the bin before we tipped it into the skip.”
|
She also points out the financial benefits: “Emptying a barrel of waste coolant costs around £500, and the neat coolant costs nearly £800 a barrel. We only use good quality coolant as the customer expects quality components and the fluid used makes a big difference. It is worth paying the extra as it also benefits the operators in terms of health & safety and improved working conditions. The Coolant Savers have slowed our consumption and disposal of oil considerably, to the extent that the units have paid for themselves over and over again.”
At Portchester the swarf bins have been specified to make the Coolant Saver much easier to use. A tube added to the edge of the bin allows the Wogaard unit to sit correctly in the bottom so it recovers the fluid. This also means the swarf does not sit on top of the Coolant Saver, making it simple for the operator to remove it when the swarf bin needs emptying. As the bins are emptied into a larger skip in the yard at the rear of the company’s facilities the housekeeping has been improved as there is no longer any coolant dripping from the bins as they are being transferred to the skip. |
Sam Morrison concludes: “Housekeeping on the shopfloor has also improved; we no longer need spill kits to mop up leaks. I would recommend the Coolant Saver to every engineering company.”
