Synthetic Lubricant Cost Savings

Article provided by:
E.B. Ontario

I have switched all of my lubricants in my rolling mills to synthetic-based oil and water and my tooling costs have decreased more than 70%. We no longer break rollers, nor do we need to send them out for skimming or polishing. The synthetic lube that I am using is called Tech Cool 3775. I am using it on four production lines on primarily stainless steel 430,435 mod. and 436 bright automobile grade stainless steel. On the 0.016” 430 and 435 modified stainless, I am running it at 4.5-5% with regular city water. When we go to the heavier 0.020” 436 stainless, I find that I have to increase the concentration on these runs to 9-10% to reduce rolling mill ghosting. In 2010 we spent more than $45,000 Canadian on roller replacement due to breaking and chipping of the rollers. We started to use the lubricant in February 2011 and our related rolling mill tooling costs went down to $8,000 Canadian. With continued monitoring and improvements this year (2012), we are at a total of $4,000 Canadian in tolling related rolling costs. I have also switched for acid washing (etchant) and city rinse to steam cleaning the profile once it leaves the mill and before it enters our adhesion tanks. This has also helped increase the quality look of the stainless.