While the latest and greatest machine tools excite engineers and operators, many manufacturers’ businesses are built on reliable turning operations performed with simple 3-axis lathes, and many of them have kept the same technology in place for decades as part of stable, secure processes. But improving upon this performance doesn’t require new turning machines. Instead, many shops have opted to retrofit these machines for high-pressure, through-tool internal coolant, a simple and affordable change that has surprisingly dramatic effects.
Or perhaps it’s not so surprising; after all, coolant has been a major driver of progress in manufacturing. Lubricants have been used for thousands of years, but for centuries of human development, society was built around softer, more easily worked metals. By the 1800s, machine tools were being designed to accommodate the use of coolant, particularly for grinding applications. And in more recent decades, most new advancements in materials science have been met with innovations in coolant technology, allowing shops to overcome their part-production challenges even when dealing with tough superalloys.
State-of-the-art coolant technologies now involve concepts like Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) and futuristic approaches like using liquified gases for exceptionally low temperatures. But for most manufacturers, the easiest coolant innovation to integrate is internal, high-pressure coolant delivered through the spindle and tool. These internal cooling solutions have a wide range of benefits – and can easily be retrofitted in static and live tooling in 3-axis lathes.
Unlike external flood cooling or peripheral cooling, which typically offer suboptimal chip control that grows problematic as cavities get deeper, internal cooling delivers the cutting fluids directly to the cutting edge. Fluids don’t require special aiming to prevent splashing or vapor formation, thus reducing waste. With higher pressures than most conventional systems, chip formation and deflection is improved, and internal systems tend to provide greater lubricity to the cutting edge for longer tool life.
These advantages translate to massive cost reductions in many common manufacturing environments. After adjusting the process to account for the greater cooling performance, it’s not unusual for manufacturers to see the number of parts per day double or triple as more aggressive cutting allows for much faster cycle times. Longer, more reliable tool life increases process security for less downtime while it allows shops to cut down on tool costs. It’s a simple, effective way to immediately improve a lathe’s performance.
Retrofitting doesn’t have to be expensive, either. REGO-FIX offers its reCool® internal cooling solution for manufacturers that want to retrofit their flood cooling to internal cooling, and as the plug-and-play system is essentially a modified clamping nut, “installation” takes minutes. Available for both rotary and static tooling, reCool offers shops a low-cost way to maximize the value of their existing equipment. To learn more about how reCool can play a transformative role in improving part production, click here.