Editor's comment: October 2016

Cutting fluids are often seen as the poor relation in a manufacturing process. Once you’ve invested vast amounts of money on a machine tool and spent the change on cutting tools, they’re often totally overlooked. In reality the quality of the cutting fluid and its subsequent management is actually vital to maintaining productivity. It is after all the crucial interface between the component and cutting tool.

And it’s on the subject of cutting fluid management where an ingenious new development by Jemtech comes into play. The East Sussex company is probably best known for its role as the exclusive UK distributor for Switzerland-based Blaser cutting fluids, but with its latest innovation – Oracle – it really takes things to the next level, taking in the fundamental principles of Industry 4.0, namely system interconnectivity and data sharing. Smart automation would be another description.

Briefly – and you’ll need to read my article on page 22 in the October issue for full details – Oracle is a standalone, intelligent fluid management system developed by Jemtech and the MTC that is connected directly to a machine tool’s sump. Once hooked up, it provides users with a consistent supply of accurate and reliable real-time data on the condition of cutting fluid, providing important information like volume, concentration, PH, temperature and conductivity as well as consumption levels.

The clever bit though is that Oracle not only provides this data; it also automatically rectifies things when they start to go off limits. But that’s not all; the Oracle data is directly accessible by Jemtech engineers so they can keep a close eye on things remotely.

I heard recently – at a presentation by during Seco’s ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ event – that Rolls-Royce captures half a terabyte of data on each fan blade it manufactures. It then uses this invaluable information to drive improvements in quality and product performance. With Oracle Jemtech has successfully applied the principles of Industry 4.0 to cutting fluid management, fully automating the tasks that once had to be done manually (if they were done at all). Impressive.

Dave Tudor Editor