Changing times in production
Our thanks to Supersprox Director DJ Maughfling for more news about the production changes and improvements being implemented at the company's Ukraine factory.
Under his guidance, Supersprox is joining the drive that is increasingly seeing motorcycle industry OEM and aftermarket parts vendors embrace sustainable manufacturing processes.
"The world of manufacturing is changing constantly," DJ told IDN, "but sometimes we get so used to a particular procedure or rule of manufacturing, that we forget to look for new alternatives. For example, anyone machining steel or aluminium, with high productivity goals, knows for sure how important tool cooling is.
"At Supersprox we were able to improve our environmental impact when we stopped using conventional cooling fluid in the machining process."
This is a counterintuitive claim to those who have assumed that the orthodox principles are here to stay, so we wanted to know more. After all, this idea conflicts with our understanding of the processes that have dominated sprocket and other production procedures for decades.
DJ continued: "We machine sprockets every day and doing so creates thousands of tons of waste. Much of the waste is in the form of small metal chips, created by the cutting tools in turning, milling and gear cutting processes.
'Stopped using conventional cooling fluid'
"Each chip is coated with a fine layer of oil-based cooling fluid, and that is taken out with the metal chips. We lose about 300 litres of oil each month with this process. Recovery of the oil is possible, but too expensive. Considering the type of product we produce, the oil loss was inevitable.
"Technology changes have now brought new techniques within our reach - techniques that can allow us to dry cut mass production parts. These days, tool coating technology allows tools to have such a high degree of cutting efficiency that cutting steel becomes more like cutting butter.
'It is now possible to keep tool temperatures below 70 C'
"In the past, we used HSS steel for making our parts. With a hardness of about 60 HRC and temperature resistance up to 650 C, it worked well enough for the times. The conventional tooling used was first commercially used way back in the 1940s and had not changed all that much since then.
"Then we jumped up to Carbide tooling, with a considerably harder structure of around 180 HRC - Carbide based tooling is able to withstand higher temperatures. But these tools are not able to machine steel in dry conditions at high speeds and high feed rates.
"However, the addition of surface coatings mean increases in surface hardness into the region of 3,000 HRC, and this ensures the tool edge remains sharp for a long time - it is now possible to keep tool temperatures below 70 C when cutting steel parts.
'Surface coatings mean increases in surface hardness into the region of 3,000 HRC'
"We are happy to be able to reduce the oil waste that would otherwise end up leaking into the ground or getting burned in the open air. We are pleased with the reduction of oils in the workplace - it is a positive health benefit for the operators.
"We believe that we will be able to totally eliminate cutting oils from our processes during the next two to three years - with a positive impact all round."
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