Efficient emulsion maintenance at the customer’s site with the R-3000 Maintenance Station « Riedel GmbH (2025)

Contamination of cooling lubricants (KSS) by foreign oils or solids is an inevitable part of the production processes in industrial manufacture. Hydraulic oils, slideway oils and greases settle on the surface of the emulsion and disturb the oxygen exchange. The result: bacteria and fungi find ideal growth conditions, the emulsion disintegrates more quickly, quality and disposal costs rise.

A customer from the metal-working industry faced this very challenge. The high disposal costs and diminishing life of the cooling lubricants were impacting the efficiency of his manufacturing processes. This is where the ARIANA R-3000 Maintenance Station came into play – a solution which cleans and maintains the emulsionperfectly during production without machine downtime.

Continuous maintenance and efficient cleaning

The ARIANA R-3000 Maintenance Station continuously suctions off the mixture of foreign oils and solids from the emulsion surface. The impurities are removed in a physical separation process.The cleaned emulsion is fed back into the machine tool, while the separated foreign oil is fed into a separate disposal vessel. The separation is low impact and has no negative effect on the emulsion. Up to 97% of foreign oils are removed.

The autonomous operation of the maintenance station was a crucial advantage for our customer. The R-3000 provides continuous maintenance of the cooling lubricants in bypass mode during the ongoing production process, without the need for an operator. The result: Fewer downtimes, prolonged service life of the emulsion and a marked reduction in disposal costs.

Customisation and state-of-the-art control

The R-3000 Maintenance Station can be customised to suit the customer’s needs. An optional PLC connection allows the monitoring and control of the station in real time. Therefore the customer retains full control of the processes at all times.

The R-3000 is used in a variety of production areas:

• Lathes
• Milling machines
• Grinding machines
• Parts washing units
• Quenching tanks

Profitability analysis

This meant a comprehensive improvement in the production processes for the customer. The continuous emulsion maintenance not only prevented the formation of unpleasant odours and risks of infection, but also ensured an increased tool and machine service life.

The potential savings achieved by using the R-3000 Maintenance Station at a glance:

• Between 100% and 300% extension of operating periods for cooling lubricants
• resulting in at least 50% reduction in cost of cooling lubricants
• Disposal costs reduced by at least 50%
• Cleaning during machine operation (bypass mode), hence increased production efficiency due to longer machine running times
• 30% less tool wear
• Reduction in reworking and rejection rate (buzzword: anticorrosion)

The customer in our example maintains 12 different machines which together use 4550 l of cooling lubricant emulsion.

By using a R-3000 Maintenance Station, the company saved at least one complete change of cooling lubricants per annum and therefore costs of approx. €7,400 (cooling lubricant new product, labour costs, disposal costs). In addition, approx. € 2,600 savings as a result of extended tool life.

Amortization after less than one year

In total, our customer was able to save around € 10,000. As the acquisition price for the R-3000 was significantly less than these savings, the acquisition had already been amortised after a year (without taking into account factors such as less machine downtime due to at least one complete change of cooling lubricant being unnecessary, and the extended machine total run time due to the optimm emulsion quality).

Additional measures

Together with our customer, we also made further improvements in the quality and useful life of the cooling lubricants by means of cooling lubricant training courses, regular screening of cooling lubricants and application optimisation of the cooling lubricants used.

Technical features at a glance:

The R-3000 Maintenance Station features:

• Eccentric screw pump and electric motor
• High-quality stainless steel material with powder coating
• One-hand quick-action couplings for all hose connections
• Fully assembled system, ready-to-use, with full range of accessories

The station’s high throughput capacity means that it is also possible to process large production volumes in a short time. The customer was extremely pleased with the efficiency and the cost savings achieved by using the R-3000 Maintenance Station.

In summary

The R-3000 Maintenance Station offers an intelligent and sustainable solution for the maintenance and cleaning of cooling lubricants. With its automated processes, powerful cleaning performance and customisation facility, it finds satisfaction in every aspect. Contact us – we will be happy to advise you on the potential uses of the R-3000 in your production facility.

Know-how