Fluid productivity

Since 2009, Harrogate-based Environmental Technologies has been a leading supplier of oil filtration and coolant handling and recycling products. Recently, the company strengthened its portfolio significantly with the announcement of a partnership with Swiss cutting fluid specialist Motorex. Dave Tudor reports.

Bucher Motorex claims it is the largest manufacturer of lubricants, industrial lubricants and metalcutting fluids in Switzerland. Founded in 1917, it remains an independent, family owned business today employing 330 people across two factories in Langenthal, Switzerland – the main headquarters and R&D centre – and a smaller facility in the South of France. Its products are sold and supported in 82 countries around the world; in fact, in terms of product sales, exporting represents 25% of the company’s total business.

The formulation of lubrication products is as much a science as it is a process and at Langenthal, Motorex has a fully featured laboratory populated with highly intelligent scientists in white coats – many educated to PhD level. Dr Alan Henderson, an Englishman originally from Tyneside and an industry veteran of some 15 years, is the head of department.

As an entity, Bucher Motorex com

prises six separate business units and supplies lubrication products into a diverse range of industries such as powersport (snowmobiles, motorcycles), cycling, automotive, food, marine, agriculture and transportation. Formed in 1974, one of those business units, Motorex AG Industrial Lubricants, is responsible for the formulation, development and production of metalcutting fluids. Headed up by Stephan Lanner, it employs 30 members of staff and manufactures 6,200 tons of fluid each year. Its main markets are in Germany, the UK, Switzerland, France, Austria, Sweden, the US, Italy and China. In Switzerland it claims to have 35% market share.

Globally, Motorex works with a network of distributors but as CEO Edi Fischer explains, these companies are carefully selected: “We look for partners that really understand our business,” he says. “Our ethos has always been centred around providing high quality products and service rather than volume and that also extends to our global distributors.

“They have to possess the technical knowledge and applications expertise to fully support our products because in every aspect they’re an extension of our own company. We work very closely with all our distributors; in the UK, we’re delighted to be working with Environmental Technologies – they have all the right credentials and tick all the right boxes.”

 

Logical step

With a £5 million turnover and employing 30 members of staff, Environmental Technologies (ETL) is very much a successful company in its own right. Its managing director is James Byrom: “Almost everything we do involves technologies and products that help minimise environmental impact – be it to extend oil life, reduce coolant waste, lessen the effect of an oil spill or measure fuel consumption,” he affirms. “For some this ‘green’ benefit alone is enough, but the way in which we achieve these results means we also deliver considerable cost savings and significant operational improvements. In terms of oil filtration, our products are all about removing particulate and water contamination,” he adds, “and that could be with hydraulic, engine, gearbox or neat cutting oils.”

The partnership with Motorex is a logical step for ETL. Its existing brands comprise Cardev oil filtration, coolant handling and disposal equipment (all manufactured in-house); plus a range of its own ETL branded flowmeters, portable particle counters, moisture sensors and oil sampling equipment. Not surprisingly, the subsea and offshore sectors are important industries for ETL; it works closely with all of the major oil suppliers as well some smaller European framework suppliers.

Operationally, the Motorex products dovetail perfectly with ETL’s Cardev range in a brand new division called Cardev Motorex. The intention is that it’ll operate autonomously – it even has its own website and staff will have their own business cards.

The two constituent elements of the new division however will be very much intertwined and complementary as sales manager Alan Dalton emphasises: “Our Cardev line represents a comprehensive range of equipment for every stage in the life of a metalworking fluid,” he states.

“Accurate mixing, safe and efficient fluid transfer, recycling systems and efficient disposal methods all help reduce costs, increase coolant life, minimise health and safety risks and reduce carbon footprint. Now, through our partnership with Motorex, we can also bring a range of high quality metalcutting fluids to the marketplace.”

Customer care

ISO 9001, 14001 and 18001 approved Environmental Technologies will be responsible for the sales and support of the full range of Motorex’s high performance Swissline industrial range; Swisscool miscible high performance metalworking fluids, Swisscut neat cutting oils, Swissgrind grinding fluids and oils, and Spindleline long life spindle oils and coolants. In addition ETL will offer the complementary range of Motorex industrial lubricants products, cleaning and corrosion protection products and machine tool oils.

Day to day management of the partnership will fall to Mr Dalton who has extensive experience in the metalworking fluid sector. He will work closely with Jörg Haas, Motorex’s area sales manager based in Langenthal.

The approach taken by Cardev Motorex will be all about working closely with customers to make them more productive and more profitable: “We find that some customers, where metalcutting fluids are concerned, are only interested in price per barrel,” Mr Dalton reveals. “That’s really not what we’re about at all. We regularly visit customer sites and evaluate their existing processes. Then we’ll recommend improvements and monitor things on an ongoing basis; we’ll even help with HSE requirements; whether the client has five or 25 CNC machines, the approach is the same. The Cardev Motorex brand represents decades of industry experience and expertise and our objective is to help customers see the whole picture rather than just cost per barrel.”

Roll out the barrel

Price comparisons are inevitable when choosing a metalworking fluid. When faced with a myriad of apparently similar 200 litre barrels with price tags varying between £700 and £2,000, the decision of the price-conscious buyer is easily made. However, according to James Byrom, if companies wish to lower costs they need to look beyond the barrel price and towards the true cost of using a metalworking fluid.

“Through the new Cardev Motorex partnership we know we won’t have the lowest barrel prices but we are confident that we can significantly reduce metalworking fluid costs for our clients – even for those who currently use the lowest-priced products available,” he says.

“That’s because we focus on the performance benefits and the dramatically lower top-up cost of the Motorex products. A simple calculation on raw usage figures alone clearly shows that we can be up to 50% less expensive than our lower priced competitors over the course of a year, and that’s before you consider all the other benefits of upgrading to such a high quality product.

“In straightforward terms it isn’t the price of the fluid, but what’s in the fluid that is important, and what that product can deliver,” he adds. “The formulation of Motorex water miscible coolants contains higher quality ingredients and vastly reduced water content when compared to lower priced products, leading to reduced consumption (through reduced evaporation and carry-out) and high levels of performance.”

Users of metalworking fluids may be familiar with the Refractometer Factor; the ratio between the refractometer reading and the true concentration of the coolant. A higher Refractometer Factor indicates increased water content in the barrel. For example a low priced product with a Refractometer Factor of 2 means that 50% of the barrel contents is water – little wonder that it can be sold at a lower price.

“Motorex coolants have a Refractometer Factor of 1-1.1 meaning water content in the barrel is less than 10%,” My Byrom continues. “This is significant when considering top-up consumption volumes as the evaporation losses are proportional to the water content in the barrel. Using Motorex products, a 5% working concentration can be maintained with a top-up concentration of 1% or less. When compared to a typical low priced product with an average top-up concentration of 4%, or a 2% top-up for other premium products, using Motorex can reduce top-up costs by 50-75%.”

The full picture

The proof, it is said, is in the eating. The following example compares a year in the life of a typical machine tool with a 300 litre coolant sump with a conservative estimate for top up volumes:

 

	Low priced fluid	Motorex
Concentrate cost/litre	£3.50	£5.30
Concentration	5%	5%
System volume	300	300
Top up per annum (litres) 60 litres/week	3,000	3,000
Top up concentration	4%	1%
Initial fill cost	£52.50	£79.50
Annual top up cost	£420	£159
Total annual cost	£472.50	£238.50

 

“If you transpose these figures to a ‘typical workshop’ with 10 CNC machines the annual savings that can be achieved by using Motorex would be £2,340 in product purchase alone – yet this is just the beginning of the savings,” Alan Dalton enthuses.

"We hope to get our customers to view Motorex fluids as an investment that can deliver significant benefits in terms of manufacturing costs and product quality. Just considering the savings that are straightforward to calculate (such as top up volumes and fluid savings) provides a strong price versus cost argument, but when you add in the indirect and sometimes harder to calculate savings (improved tool life, surface finish, and sump life, cleaner machines and happier operators), environmental benefits (reduced consumption and reduced disposal) and improved Health and Safety aspects (chlorine-free, boron-free, formaldehyde-free, bio-stable formulations, complying with latest legislation) it’s easy to see that using low price product is a high cost strategy.”

With the Cardev-Motorex partnership customers can then go one step further by introducing the Cardev range of coolant mixing, delivery, cleaning and recycling systems. Cardev equipment and Motorex fluids form a strong combination for the component manufacturing market, which adds further significant saving and process improvements to those generated simply by a switch of metalworking fluid.

“In summary, by switching to high performance Motorex metalworking fluids top-up levels are reduced, the fluid lasts much longer, component finish is improved, tool life is extended, machines are cleaner, operators are happier, downtime is reduced and costs are dramatically reduced,” Mr Dalton concludes.

ETL Fluid Experts www.etlfluidexperts.com

Environmental Technologies www.env-t.com