Here’s the scoop—many machine tool components are incompatible and ASTM is doing something about it.

Mismatched machine-tool components and metalworking fluids have “plagued all manufacturers in the metalworking industry for years” causing significant losses in production, wrote Dave Moon, a manager at Castrol Industrial North American, Inc., Ill., and Neil Carter, president of Chemical Solutions, Pa., in “The Seal Compatibility Problem” (Manufacturing Engineering, June).

Moon and industry stakeholders met in March with ASTM Assistant Vice President Drew Azzara to plan standard compatibility assessments for these products.

At a June meeting, representatives of machine manufacturers, component suppliers, lubricant and coolant manufacturers, trade associations, and the mobility industry unanimously agreed to form ASTM Committee F35 on Compatibility of Machine Tool Components with Industrial Lubricants. The committee will develop standards for:

• Elastomers—tubing, hoses, and seals;
• Polycarbonate Barriers—window shields, etc.
• Electrical—switches, controls, wiring, etc.;
• Industrial Lubricants—metalworking fluids, machine lubricants; and
• Surface Preparation—paints, coatings, adhesives.

The committee invites participation on working groups that will develop these standards. ASTM membership is not required; contact the committee manager below.

“The machine-tool industry produces the manufacturing technology needed to make products from engine blocks to drive shafts, from jet-engine blades to sophisticated space-probe parts,” Azzara explained. “These machines and their various components are used to change the shape of metals by removing material from the original metal piece.

“As products are needed for the marketplace with high performance tolerances,” he continued, “failures are occurring in the manufacturing process. These failures are the result of the incompatibility of the components.”

In Lubricants World (May), Moon described failures as an industry-wide problem resulting in downtime and safety risks. Since 1996, he said, between 35 and 40 serious injuries resulted when embrittled polycarbonate viewing blocks shattered. Lubricants cited ASTM’s standards initiative, emphasizing incompatibility between “industrial lubricants and five other machine-tool components: metalworking fluids and other oils, elastomers, polycarbonates, electrical components, and epoxies/ paints/adhesives.”

To participate or obtain technical information, contact ASTM Committee F35 chairman Yusuf Venjara, Hitachi Seiki USA, Inc., Congers, N.Y. (phone: 845/268-4124). For membership or meeting details, contact Tim Brooke, manager, ASTM Technical Committee Operations (phone: 610/832-9729). //

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