Based in Hartlebury, Worcestershire, Hartmetall is a distributor of tungsten carbide rods, strips, and blocks for cutting tool manufacturers.
Hartmetall’s preparation of the blanks begins with accurate cutting of tungsten carbide rods. In order to ensure clean cutting, optimise wheel life, and minimise cycle times, it is imperative that the coolant used is suitably filtered before it is reintroduced into the grinding process. Clean and accurate cutting of the tungsten carbide is very important as it reduces setup and grinding time for Hartmetall and its customers.
Build-up of sediment
Hartmetall UK previously used a number of methods for filtration including cyclonic and cartridge filters. However, the cyclonic filtration device quickly became overwhelmed by the build-up of sediment. It subsequently stopped working effectively and was reintroducing the carbide particles into the reservoir of clean coolant and recirculating them through the system. The abrasive nature of the slurry contaminates and wears all that it comes into contact with, therefore it was literally wearing the machine out from the inside. The contamination resulted in shorter wheel life, poor finish, inaccuracy, and most importantly; dissatisfied customers.
253 HT-TMD Cut Off Machine.
In their search for a solution, Hartmetall UK spoke to Elite Tooling based in Rotherham. Elite Tooling has a multilayer approach whereby a Filtramag is incorporated into the system they use on their cutter grinders. They have found that the inclusion of the Filtramag has been a great benefit.
After witnessing the success of the incorporation of a Filtramag into Elite Tooling’s process, Hartmetall UK invited Graham Thorpe, sales manager for Eclipse Magnetics, to demonstrate the efficiency of the Filtramag in their slitting machine. Mark Turton, Managing Director at Hartmetall UK said: “Graham casually stirred the ‘clean’ coolant with a magnetic rod as used in the Filtramag, and pulled out what can only be described as a lollipop of slurry. It was so effective, we gave him the order there and then.”
Eclipse Magnetics provided Hartmetall UK with a Filtramag FM2.5 that they installed onto an existing machine in 2014. The Filtramag worked so well that an order was placed for a second Filtramag, which was supplied directly to Casalin to be incorporated into the build of a 253 HT-TMD cut off machine.
The 11,000 gauss magnetic core pack ensures that almost 100% of the contamination is removed on first pass through the filter. High intensity magnetic cores ensure particle filtration down to sub-micron size, ensuring that the fluid is fully filtered and therefore eliminating the problems highlighted.
Contamination removed by the Filtramag FM2.5.
Optimum performance
To ensure optimum performance, the Filtramag is inspected daily and cleaned as required. This takes Hartmetall UK only a few minutes as part of its good housekeeping routine, and ensures continued trouble free operation of the machine. The Filtramag can also be removed and cleaned while the machine is running, eliminating downtime.
The inclusion of the Filtramag has extended the coolant life significantly, therefore reducing the cost of coolant, and reducing the cost of recycling waste coolant. The previous method of filtration required the coolant to be drained and replaced between every 4 and 6 weeks depending on the use of the machine. The Filtramag unit has currently been installed for over 6 months, and the coolant is yet to be changed as it remains clean. Hartmetall UK use Rocol ‘Ultragrind Carbide’ and have found it to be exceptional in performance.
Filtramag FM2.5 from Eclipse Magnetics.
The Filtramag FM2.5 has received a recent upgrade to the FM2.0+/11K, now offering even better levels of both magnetic performance and contamination removal efficiency due to the re-designed flow path of the fluid through the filter. Its high intensity magnetic cores make it 100% effective for use with materials which have lower magnetic permeability such as tungsten carbide.
The Filtramag has allowed the company to reduce cycle times, increase wheel life, and maintain a high level of finish, whilst extending the life of the machine.
Not only does the filter work well for Hartmetall, there are no running costs involved and no filter cartridges to dispose of or buy. The Filtramag enables the tungsten carbide residue to be collected and there are no costs involved in the disposal of waste as the recovered tungsten carbide can be sold and recycled.
