Years of Safe Service Life for Cutting Fluids
The service life of water-miscible cutting fluids can easily extend to several years without posing occupational safety risks due to degradation. This is already a reality in many machine shops. So, what do these shops have in common?
The answer is fluid maintenance. Without proper upkeep, cutting fluids quickly lose their essential properties and eventually degrade. Effective maintenance always starts with two fundamentals: continuous monitoring and cleanliness.
Why Monitoring and Cleanliness Matter
Monitoring—essentially regular measurement and reporting—makes it possible to react to changes before they cause serious issues. Cleanliness, on the other hand, helps maintain the fluid’s properties for a longer period of time.
How Is This Achieved in Practice?
Beyond cleanliness, the most critical factor in both solving and preventing problems is having an accurate picture of the fluid’s current state. This means measuring the condition of the fluids frequently and comprehensively.
A once-weekly measurement is significantly better than none at all—but with cutting fluids, the faster the changes, the more frequently monitoring is needed. Timely reaction is essential, especially for prevention, since preventing problems is much easier than fixing them.
In General, to Restore Cutting Fluids (Applicable to Most Water-Miscible Fluids):
- Maintain concentration as close as possible to the recommended value.
- Adjust pH based on measurements. React quickly—small corrections are more effective.
- Remove both chips and fine particles (micron-sized) promptly. Ion issues correlate more with surface area and time than with mass. Large particles accumulate in the tank and promote microbial growth by creating anaerobic "dead spots".
- Remove tramp oils as quickly as possible using reliable and efficient methods.
- Test and ensure the water hardness is not too high. If needed, purify added water from ions, bacteria, and other impurities.
- Keep the fluid circulating to maintain oxygenation.
- Measure, measure, and measure again. Log your results and respond quickly—even during holidays and weekends if possible.
- Track trends in your data to understand how changes affect the cutting fluid.
Preventing degradation is more effective than repair, and it leads to better outcomes. Aim for frequent, uninterrupted measurement and adjustment cycles. Keep a record of results and always maintain fluid cleanliness. This is the key to excellent performance.
If you’re looking for a simple way to manage it all, the Spesnes ICS maintenance system is a smart solution. It continuously measures fluid condition across multiple parameters in real-time, automatically adjusts concentration and pH, removes micro-particles and tramp oils, and clearly reports all results directly to your computer or smartphone.
How to increase the safe lifespan of your cutting fluids