Productive Times

SHOP CLEANS UP ITS ACT WITH MQL

Around 2 years ago, Sigma Machine Inc. was a mess. Literally,
coolant covered the floors of the
Kalamazoo, Mich., aluminum-extrusion machine shop, operators
tracked it from the shop floor to
the offices, and the slippery fluids
posed a safety hazard. Also, the
shops floors are epoxy painted and
the work area is brightly lit, which
only made the watery mess more
noticeable.
To combat this issue, the shop
installed minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) systems from Unist Inc.,
Grand Rapids, Mich., on its CNC
millsbut the result was more than

A Unist MQL system

is used in a milling
operation.

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a clean floor.
END USER
SOLUTION PROVIDER
The original issue was simUnist Inc.
ple housekeeping, said Jim Van Sigma Machine Inc.
(269)
345-6316
(800) 253-5462
Weelden, president and owner of
www.sigmamachine.net
www.unist.com
Sigma Machine, but once we made
the switch, there were a number of
benefits that we got that we werent CHALLENGE Eliminate excess coolant to improve shop floor safety
and cleanliness.
even looking for in the first place. Our
maintenance costs are way down beMinimum quantity lubrication systems.
SOLUTION
cause there are fewer coolant tanks
to be purged and less coolant to be
disposed of, and our cycle times have decreased because in the air. We find that once our customers find the
were able to run the machines at higher speeds.
lubrication sweet spot with their MQL systems, they
The newly clean work environment is important not quickly fall in love with the benefits.
only to management, but to the 100 employees who
We had a very simple, very narrow goal in mind iniwork there. While coolant was being tracked all over tially, Van Weelden said, but the benefits have been
the building and, presumably, back to employees cars much more than just cleanliness. This last year, we purand homes, employees can now come to work clean chased 12 new mills, and, based on the results from our
first year of operation, we ordered 12 new Unist sysand go home clean.
Sigma Machine outfitted about 30 CNC mills on the tems at the same time. Theres just no reason wed use
CTE
main shop floor with the standard Unist 2210 MQL sys- anything else.
tem, and Van Weelden said the shop plans to upgrade
to the newest Unist MQL system later this year, which
will offer several benefits. Our next project is to go
through-spindle and through-tool with Unist, which is
offered with their new programmable system, he said.
We are just starting to get the components together
to test it on one machine. If that goes well, we will refit
most of our machines with that system.
Retrofitting a CNC mill with a standard Unist MQL
system costs about $2,500, while the new through-tool,
programmable system costs about $4,500 per machine.
Two years after installing the standard systems, Sigma
is realizing a return on investment from reduced maintenance costs, according to Van Weelden.
The only challenge Sigma ran into when incorporating MQL was correctly training machinists who are accustomed to working with flood coolant. Operators
who are used to standard water-based coolant tend to
clear chips with the MQL-laden air from the machine,
Van Weelden noted. This created a fog which was
bothering some workers throats.
Unist Senior Vice President Tim Walker added, Although commonly caused a mist system, MQL systems have been shown to produce fewer emissions
than flood cooling when adjusted properly. Getting
machinists to adjust to the MQL mentality isnt always
easy, he continued, as the natural tendency is to think
that if a little lubricant is good, more must be better.
The excess lubricant has no place to go and winds up
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