Machine shop testing commercial equipment for military applications

Citizen Airman, April, 2004 by Charles Miller

Paying at the pump is always cheaper and faster than using the old system with a full-service gas station attendant. The staff at the 445th Maintenance Squadron's machine shop at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has a new piece of equipment that does not pump gas, but it is saving them time and money. Plus, it is great for the environment.

The Accu-Lube unit is a small piece of equipment that can be used with existing tooling machinery and is providing big benefits. It helps people in the machine shop complete jobs faster, with less wear and tear on their equipment, and has a shorter clean-up time. The unit uses soy-bean-based biodegradable oil and compressed air to lubricate metal components that are being machined or drilled.

"It doesn't pump flood coolant oil like the old system," said Staff Sgt. Nathan Moffitt of the machine shop. "The Accu-Lube uses compressed air and mixes the air with small amounts of vegetable oil. If we are drilling or machining a thick piece of metal and need a lot of oil and not much air, we can mix it to run that way. Or, if we need a lot of air and not much oil, we can do that, too.

"It uses a vegetable oil base that is completely biodegradable. The biggest thing is it's environmentally friendly."

The Accu-Lube with the vegetable oil works just as well or better than petroleum-based oils, plus it has the added benefit of being virtually odor free, he said.

The Accu-Lube uses two 24-inch semi-rigid adjustable hoses with nozzles at the dispensing end. They are bendable like "snake lights," able to move into whatever position is needed to get the job done. In the case of the Accu-Lube, the tips of the nozzles are pointed right at the area being drilled or machined.

The nozzles send out a nearly invisible mist of oil with air mixed in, as opposed to the oil-only flood cooling pump. It is much less messy and far more efficient, Sergeant Moffitt said.

The amount of oil used for a job has dramatically decreased with this new piece of equipment. Sergeant Moffitt estimated that the Accu-Lube uses half the oil the old system uses. In some cases, it might use just a third as much, which amounts to a decent savings of oil and money.

Aside from using decidedly less oil, the Accu-Lube is much easier on machineshop equipment, Sergeant Moffitt said.

"The air-powered jet of oil and air helps clear away chips of metal and cools the area as well," he said.

Although the Accu-Lube system and other similar products are widely used in the commercial aerospace and automotive industry, the 445th Airlift Wing is the only unit testing Accu-Lube within the Air Force. It presents a unique opportunity for the 445th machine shop to test a new piece of equipment that may have a positive impact Department of Defense-wide.

(Sergeant Miller is assigned to the 445th AW Office of Public Affairs, Wright-Patterson AFB.)