Chip Control

The primary benefit of adopting high-pressure coolant over traditional flood coolant methods for CNC machining is chip control. High-pressure coolant penetrates to the tool’s cutting edge, providing a short shear zone that results in the creation of thin chips that easily break into small pieces. Contrarily, low-pressure, or flood coolant, results in a long shear zone that produces a thick chip that does not easily break, resulting in long stringy chips. These stringy chips often pass back through the tool piece resulting in further depreciation on the tool as it is cut again. These chips can also maneuver their way back through parts of the machining system causing clogs and damage to the entire system, resulting in costly downtime and repair costs. With high-pressure coolant smaller broken chips easily fall away from the tool and work piece, or are blown away by the force of the coolant, preventing these chip-related problems.

More Effective Cooling

High-pressure coolant has a stronger cooling effect, allowing the tool to operate at a lower temperature, which reduces thermal shock and the premature wearing that results from it. When using flood coolant methods, as temperatures increase past 212° Fahrenheit, the coolant begins to vaporize creating a vapor barrier which has a blanket effect holding in heat. The flood coolant cannot penetrate the barrier making it ineffective, but when using high-pressure of 1,000 PSI or higher, the coolant is able to penetrate the vapor barrier, which allows it to effectively cool the cutting zone. Keeping the cutting area at a lower temperature does not only benefit tooling life, it also prevents workpiece distortion that can occur at excess temperatures. The final benefit of the more effective cooling from high-pressure coolant is the ability to increase cutting speeds by 20-30%.

Maximizing Your Benefits

Better chip control and cooling allow CNC shops to minimize downtime and rework while operating faster and more effectively. The only downside to high-pressure coolant is the higher start-up costs, but with the high return on investment, switching to high-pressure coolant over flood coolant is a no brainer. The big question is, “which pump will you choose for your high-pressure cooling system?” Shanley Pump stocks various sizes of our Seim PWO pump models for high-pressure coolant applications. The PWO model is a hydraulically balanced three screw positive displacement screw pump with linear flow and no pulsation or turbulence which reduces costly repairs to both the pump and other expensive components. The PWO operates at approximately 60 decibels which is less than the motor in many applications, ensuring far less noise pollution than other pumps for high-pressure coolant. The PWO can bring less noise, longer service life, and better coolant distribution to your shop, so give our engineers on standby a call; we can help retrofit a PWO high-pressure coolant pump for your system.