Semi-synthetic coolant matches mineral oil performance

As a subcontractor serving the offshore oil industry discovered, considering just the purchase price of coolant instead of its operating cost can be misleading.

The company initially approached coolant manufacturer Master Chemical Europe to assess the viability of using a semi-synthetic, instead of a mineral oil based, product. Initial interests were in improving product finish and extending tool life.

The customer's components are largely made from Inconel, titanium and stainless steel, so Master Chemical Europe recommended its TRIM SC617 with extreme pressure additive that boosts cutting performance for difficult-to-machine materials. The low foam profile of this product also enables its effective use in through tool machining applications.

The product proved itself during the trial with no loss of performance compared to the competitor product. Indeed it was found to be much cleaner as it rejects tramp oil far more efficiently than the mineral oil alternative. As a result skimmers and coalescers were able to work with greater efficiently.

One concern, the higher cost of the TRIM SC617 per 204 litre drum, was quickly dispelled on further investigation as low consumption is another proven benefit of the TRIM SC617. The competitor's product needed to be topped up by more than 3% to achieve the recommended 6% concentration whereas TRIM SC617 could achieve the same performance with a top-up of just 1%. And this represented a huge cost saving.

The mathematics revealed that the cost to production of the mineral oil based product, based on 15 drums per year, was 8565. By comparison, only a third of the TRIM SC617 was needed to do the same job, at a total cost of 2826. So the customer was able to achieve better performance and a massive 66% cost saving too.

If you wish to find out more, please visit: www.masterchemical.com