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PRESS RELEASE
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Aerospace titanium cutting fluid - 100% better tool life than closest competitor
Monday, 14 February 2011

The aerospace market is growing.

The Boeing Company is forecasting a $2.6 trillion new commercial airplane market over the next 20 years. This represents 27,210 total planes. Airbus is forecasting a similar market value with fewer - 22,700 planes - but larger planes.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A380 are attracting the most attention for use of groundbreaking materials. These new generation of aircraft will witness the conversion from mostly metal structures to new advanced composites in combination with high performance metal alloys.

15% of key components will be manufactured from titanium, twice the amount used in previous generations of aircraft.

For the aero industry; the natural inherent properties of titanium offer significant advantages, higher strength but lower weight than steels and aluminium, and twice the elasticity of steel make it eminently suitable for applications such as aircraft landing gear and wing structures. This enables manufacturers to create larger but more fuel efficient aircrafts, the 787 being 20% more efficient than today's twin engine planes.

Machining Challenges

With the anticipated demand, it is estimated that production will require more titanium machining capacity than currently exists world-wide, therefore there is a critical need to improve machining efficiency.

However, because of the inherent properties listed above, titanium is notoriously difficult to machine and, if there is one key challenge in the machining of titanium today, it is achieving fast metal removal rates (MRR) with reasonable tool life so as achieve technical innovation at a cost effective rate.

Historically, the basic rule for machining titanium was to use low cutting speeds and sharp tools. Fortunately, recent advances in machine tool and tooling technology have made the goal of high MRR with longer tool life possible. As a result, manufacturers can now produce high-quality titanium components with shorter cycle times, increased tool life, and higher machine shop productivity by utilising high-flow, high pressure coolant delivery systems and advanced tooling materials such as heat resistant carbide.

However, maximum efficiency can only be achieved if the coolant technology is matched to meet the operating criteria of titanium machining and FUCHS has used its global research team to develop the ECOCOOL S 761 B coolant to achieve these aims.

Example:

With steel based components, more than 75% of heat generated by the cutting process is transferred to the evacuated chip, whereas with titanium, only 25% of the heat is transferred.

This in turn creates a greater heat concentration on the cutting edge of the tool. This condition of course leads to more rapid tool failure or diminished productivity due to slower cutting speeds.

Effective Titanium Machining - Coolant Project

To fully understand the benefits of different coolant technologies, FUCHS embarked on a research project at Warwick University. This project used machine tool assets owned by Warwick University to replicate production conditions (milling) common in the aerospace industry.

During the tests, machining parameters were maintained to ensure consistency in the results and tool wear was recorded periodically with various commercially available coolant technologies.

Each coolant's performance was measured in terms of "tool wear v. time". Photographic evidence was recorded every 5 minutes to analyse tool wear and to verify findings during the study. Over 5,500 photographs were recorded during the total study and the report formed part of PhD dissertation study.

Results:

The results showed FUCHS ECOCOOL S761B coolant to offer industry leading results in terms of tool wear and 100% better performance than the fluid advertised as "the world's best selling aerospace coolant".

Contact details from our directory:
FUCHS Lubricants (UK) plc Dry Film Lubricants, Quenching Oil, Oil, Cutting & Machining Oil, Grease, Synthetic Lubricants, Thread Anti-Seize Compounds
Related directory sectors:
Lubricants