Fluid monitoring: essential but less than perfect
Metal working fluid (MWF) management is a critical support activity in manufacturing operations; one that directly impacts productivity and efficiency.
“At Castrol we know that managing cutting fluids requires many manual processes, like sampling, testing, intervention and documentation, which are an inefficient use of our customers’ time and resources. That’s why we’ve created Castrol SmartControl, our automated, real-time condition monitoring solution. It can maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of our customers’ cutting fluid management and limit the associated HSSE risks”, said Mathias Buschbeck, Global Industrial Leader at Castrol.
Under control
SmartControl is, as the name suggests, a smarter way to deal with metalworking fluid management. It moves monitoring and management to a new level, and takes repetitive, dirty, and dangerous tasks out of engineers’ hands.
Real-time condition monitoring is designed to improve MWF management, minimise errors, and maintain fluids and their performance by integrating Castrol’s advanced XBB MWFs with Industry 4.0 technology.
Castrol’s XBB industrial fluid technology is proven to cut unscheduled interventions, improve efficiency, reduce waste, and allows engineers to get on with other valuable tasks that would have traditionally slipped down their agenda.
SmartControl continually measures the following MWF parameters:
- Concentration
- pH level
- Conductivity
- Temperature
- Volume flow
Any variation away from specification triggers an alert to enterprise, production and control IT systems. It does without manual sampling, meaning no loss of time while samples are transported to the lab to be analysed, and ensures there are no delays on account of reports being sent late.
SmartControl even self-cleans and self-calibrates, in order to maintain ongoing accuracy.