Manufacturing Technology

US-based Allways Precision, a specialist in rebuilding and supplying centreless grinders to the aerospace fastener market, has announced its recommendation of CONDAT products for its customers’ grinding applications.

As a key solutions provider in this challenging industry, Allways Precision purchases, remanufactures, upgrades, and sells centreless grinders for a variety of applications – including grinding of difficult metals such as inconel, A286 stainless, titanium and ferrous alloy fasteners.

Many of these applications involve high removal rates on tough materials, which has been a problem in the past when using conventional, chlorinated grinding oils. Lots of smoke, misting, and a high risk of having a pop-up/flash fire occur due to the elevated temperatures for these applications and the nature of conventional oils.

“Conventional and heavily chlorinated oils have several negative drawbacks on the long-term performance of our machine tools,” says Alex Vanderberg, technical programme director at Allways Precision. “Furthermore, the low flash point of those oils is a concern, especially when grinding titanium.”

Alex continues: “We have had good success using CONDAT oils to grind all types of aerospace alloys, including titanium. We have seen good performance while performing run-offs for several major fastener manufacturers, and we have never experienced a fire, even when grinding in severe conditions. We would therefore recommend customers also use Condat products in our machines and encourage them to test them out, as we believe them to be a good solution for this challenging industry.”