Overview

 J. G. Kern Enterprises, Inc. is a world class CNC machining facility that manufactures close tolerance components for drivetrain and powertrain assemblies, chassis frames, and other components. After several expansions over the years, it is now a 220,000 square foot facility that incorporates some of the newest technology.

They had  areas of concern regarding their coolant usage: 

• the low production area manufacturing aluminum blocks and heads
• the high production area where they machine all cast iron
• tool breakage, considering they were a 24-hour, 7-day operation

They had an old Guardian recycler that was 20+ years old that had not been used for coolant recycling in many years; instead, it was being utilized as a stand for their raw coolant totes. They cleaned out sumps with an existing Sump Sucker that was used every day. For filling and topping off machine sumps, two totes were used for premix and moved around the shop via a forklift to fill machines. 

They had 200+ CNC’s, consisting mostly of Makino’s, Fuji’s, and Okuma’s, among others. Their sump cleaning schedule entailed a portion of machines every 30 – 45 days, another portion every 6 months, and yet some other cnc’s once a year. Waste coolant was hauled away in totes.  When they accumulated 5,000 – 7,000 gallons (about every 2 weeks), they would have a waste hauler come out to pick up and properly dispose. 

Coolant concentration control was one other area of improvement they wanted to address. They had 10 – 12 broaches that ran at 10% – 12% and the rest of the machines were at 6% – 8%. They were cleaning about 3-4 tanks a day, about 800 gallons per day.