Established in 1929 and now a leading manufacturer and supplier of high-pressure compression fittings, valves and bespoke instrumentation products for the oil, gas and water industries, Waverley Brownall is used to manufacturing complex parts from difficult-to-machine metals including stainless steel, super duplex, Incoloy and Hastelloy. However, in recent years, the company has experienced unacceptable short sump life periods and bad odours from its metalworking fluids. Eventually Q8Oils was invited to visit Waverly Brownall to assess the problems first hand and provide a sustainable resolution.
A requirement of Waverley Brownall’s new cutting fluid was to therefore increase sump life and eliminate the offensive odours emitted, but to also minimise machine downtime related to changing systems and reduce the waste produced as a consequence of the very short fluid life.
Commenting for Waverley Brownall, workshop manager Dennis Whitefield says: “Our last couple of suppliers just haven’t been up to scratch. Towards the end of the relationship with our previous supplier, the cutting fluids were very oily, built up residues rapidly and just weren’t up to standard. Before that, the fluids from another major oil supplier made our machines rusty.”
Since Q8Oils began supplying neat and soluble metalworking fluids for all the machine tool types and material specifications, Waverley Brownall noticed an immediate improvement. A typical example is one particular CNC machine dedicated to the manufacture of compression fittings, where Q8 Baroni XCIH is now being used to machine 316L stainless steel. Previously, a congealed layer used to build up on the top of the existing cutting fluid, but with the new Q8Oils product now operational, there is no contamination. The Q8 Baroni XCIH metalworking fluid is remaining stable and lasting longer. In fact, Waverley Brownall is reporting that Q8 Baroni XCIH is lasting at least twice as long as the previous cutting fluid and tramp oil has returned to acceptable levels, thus limiting the use of its tramp oil removal equipment.
Having been astonished at the durability and performance of the Q8Oils range, another surprise for Waverley Brownall was cost, reporting very little difference in price between its original supplier and Q8Oils. Further cost savings have also been achieved through a reduced maintenance schedule as the company doesn’t have to constantly monitor the condition and consistency of its metalworking fluids as the concentration remains stable throughout the lifecycle of the fluid.
Q8 Baroni XCIH is a semi-synthetic, water-mix metalworking fluid for general machining of ferrous and non-ferrous materials. It has been developed to keep machines extremely clean throughout the life of the coolant and provide enhanced lubrication characteristics at the tool chip interface. The inclusion of advanced chemistry with in the formulation also allows Q8 Baroni XCIH to perform on par with traditional fully-synthetic grinding fluids, whilst ensuring machine protection and high standards of surface finish. To comply with local legislation, waste treatment and environmental requirements, it does not contain added chlorine, sulphur, creosols, phenols or nitrites and its bio-stable properties mean that the emulsion does not degrade or produce bad odours.
Summarising, Dennis Whitefield says: “We needed a range of metalworking fluids that could easily match the performance of our CNCs, which are machining over 600 compression fittings and valves per week. Q8 Baroni XCIH and Q8Oils’ range of neat and soluble cutting fluids provide us with that performance and, in the process, have also helped to reduce costs.”
