Case Study: Manufacturer Eliminates Over 90% of Coolant Disposal Costs
Challenges
Exercise manufacturer needs to reduce the change-over frequency of coolants on the CNC machines due to becoming rancid at a fast rate.
Customer
Precor, Inc.
Industry
Exercise Equipment
Product
Guardian Coolant Recycling System
Business Benefits Realized
- New coolant purchases are reduced
- Reduced coolant disposal costs
- Rancidity and dermatitis have been eliminated
Precor, Inc., based just North of Seattle in Bothell, WA, makes a full line of treadmills climbers, stationary bicycles, and ski machines. By following strict design standards and using the highest quality materials, Precor ensures that its products are quiet, comfortable, easy to use, visually attractive, and, most important, that they maximize body conditioning
and personal enjoyment. The company distributes to carefully selected specialty stores and specialty sporting goods stores.
The people at Precor come from both specialty and management backgrounds, including medical electronics, industrial design, electronic engineering, human physiology, and sports/fitness marketing.
Precor takes pride in its dedication to producing high-quality fitness products and is committed to design excellence. This is one of the main reasons why PRAB was chosen to be their supplier of recycling equipment. Precor was having a problem with their coolant going rancid on their CNC machines. Some machines needed to have the coolant replaced every five days while others were changed every two weeks. Coolant
usage was one drum per month and the rancid coolant was disposed of at about $250 per month.The machinists were frequently adding biocides to try to prolong the coolants useful life, which didn't seem to work. They were also facing problems with dermatitis due to the volume of alkalinity boosters and biocides contacting their skin.
Precor installed an HG-200 Guardian Coolant Recycling System to be used on the coolant from the CNC machining centers. They set up an effective preventative maintenance program which schedules machines to be cleaned routinely. The heaviest tramp oil producing machines are cleaned every month while others are cleaned only every other
month. The coolant from these machines is recycled through the HG-200 and the problems of rancidity, excess chemical additions, and dermatitis have been eliminated.
Precor is happy with the result and particularly impressed as new coolant purchase cost has been reduced by 40% and coolant disposal cost has been lowered by over 90%.
