Technology Blog

Concluding our blog series on how automated coolant delivery systems can improve your return on investment (ROI), we turn now to opportunity costs.

In the majority of machine shops, coolant delivery to CNC machines is still a manual operation. Machinists, however, tend to err on the side of using higher-than-necessary coolant concentrations, driving up what you spend on coolant each year.

How many machine shops spend 10 to 20 minutes a day per CNC machine, distracted by coolant tending at the start, end or during a shift? What if these shops could totally eliminate this wasted time and run their spindles more?

Machine stoppages due to low or flooded CNC coolant are a costly source of waste and downtime. We know this from experience. One way to put an end to these stoppages is to automate your coolant delivery process, increasing your profit. One more checklist to look at is not the answer.

Continuing our series on how automatic coolant refill systems maximize your ROI, we now turn to simple cost per fill events. The reality is, it costs you something each time someone has to monitor, mix and fill a CNC machine. And when something goes wrong, you have to pay someone to fix it. All these costs add up—especially if you have multiple CNC machines in your shop running over several shifts.

When evaluating the performance of an automatic coolant refill system, one of your first questions is probably about your return on investment (ROI). If you’re like many shop owners or operations managers, it’s tempting to consider ROI only in terms of labor costs. But while labor does contribute to your ROI, it doesn’t tell the whole story—especially where coolant is concerned.