Article about lubrication and die life

[GrumpyEd]

Saw this article about the mint saving money by increasing die life by tweaking the lubrication used, the article was linked over at CU:

link

[Maineman750]

Interesting....so now we know they are using lubricant on the die itself...thanks for the link

[jfines69]

Really interesting to read that... The NIST nano lub lab sounds more like a playboy club... LOL!!!

[GrumpyEd]

I wish they gave more detail.
They mentioned a defective pump being the reason for the wrong amounts but they don't say if they lubricate the dies or maybe they pump a bit in with the rinse or mist it on so it's on each planchet.
It also said they doubled the die life and saved 2 million dollars but I'd think that it would save more than that if they're talking about all dies for all denominations, they mentioned dimes. I thought all of the dies cost enough that doubling the die life would save more than that.

[willbrooks]

So we should have been saying "struck through lube" all this time....

[copperlover]

So we should have been saying "struck through lube" all this time....

Thanks for a very interesting article. I came across this while doing some
research at the archives in Maryland on the minting of copper cents.

Lucien

[BadThad]

Interesting....so now we know they are using lubricant on the die itself...thanks for the link

Anyone running a stamping operation would be a fool not to use a suitable metalworking fluid. The tool (die) life would be very short running a dry machine.

Since I'm in the business, another interesting fact I discovered by working with the same suppliers the Mint does, is that they formulate their own fluids. This is very unusual in the business as most companies use products like those made by my company. As the Mint discovered, formulating metalworking fluids/drawing and stamping fluids is very complicated. If it was easy, we'd be out of business.

[BadThad]

So we should have been saying "struck through lube" all this time....

Actually, it could be "struck through residue". Residue is a side-effect of improperly maintaining a metalworking fluid (MWF) system, especially with respect to hard water (the formation of insoluble metallic-organic acid salts, i.e. soap) and biological control (component degradation). We get residue samples in our lab daily and they are almost always composed of metallic soaps. They can build-up on the tooling and machines if not addressed.

[Dar]

Good read and the video is worth watching as well. Thanks.

[BadThad]

I re-read the technical article published by STLE on this. It discloses that the Mint used to use a stamping oil for coining. Also interesting, the new, water-based lubricant is applied during the burnishing process on the planchets. The coining machines have NO fluid going to them.....which is very surprising since a good bit of heat is generated during any stamping operation. It's also interesting how secretive the Mint is as to the specifics of some of the chemicals involved, very strange for a full technical paper.

[GrumpyEd]

Also interesting, the new, water-based lubricant is applied during the burnishing process on the planchets.

That was what I wondered about. If it was somehow dispensed to the dies or applied to the planchets.