A cutting fluid reprocessing facility, installed and managed by Castrol, has cut waste fluid disposal by more than 80% at the Perkins Engine plant in Peterborough.

A cutting fluid reprocessing facility installed and managed by Castrol, has cut waste fluid disposal by more than 80% at the Perkins Engine plant in Peterborough. Perkins Engines, part of the engines division of Caterpillar, is a major supplier of diesel engines for the industrial, agricultural and power generation markets, with UK manufacturing plants in Peterborough and Stafford and a manufacturing location in Curitiba, Brazil. The two transfer systems at the Peterborough plant have an annual output of 20,000 cylinder heads and cylinder blocks.

A cylinder head machining line supplied by Renault produces 80,000 units.

And a bearing cap machining facility produces 150,000 sets for a variety of different engines.

Perkins has been a Castrol customer for more than ten years and currently uses Alusol XTH soluble cutting fluid to machine cylinder heads and cylinder blocks at the Peterborough site: Castrol supplies metalworking fluids and services to other Caterpillar sites in the UK.

Four years ago the company adopted Six Sigma methodology and applied the system to evaluate the potential for outsourcing fluid management.

Following the review, which included proposals from the existing cutting fluid suppliers, the company concluded that a total fluid management programme would not benefit the business.

However, some of the specific proposals put forward in the Castrol proposal were of interest, and the company decided to progress them in a separate working partnership.

Initially the partnership focused on a specific project, and Castrol was awarded a contract to install and manage coolant reprocessing and laundering equipment in the main metal cutting facility responsible for producing cylinder blocks and cylinder heads.

The performance of the 3-year contract exceeded expectations by generating a substantial cost saving and, more importantly, a significant reduction in the amount of waste cutting fluid that needed disposal.

Commenting on the project, Perkins manufacturing manager Chris Baty-Symes explains that the waste fluid volume was actually reduced from 466,000 litres to 45,000 litres, a reduction of over 90%, adding that whilst cost savings are important, meeting the demanding target of zero emissions to landfill by 2010, set by the Caterpillar environmental policy, was an even greater incentive.

'We expected the environmental benefits to be at least 'cost neutral',' he says, 'but this was a major environmental improvement that was 'cost beneficial' and meant that the equipment paid for itself within the three year contract period'.

He added that the waste reduction improvements achieved in the first twelve months of the partnership with Castrol, not only met the Perkins 2003 target, they also enabled the company to meet its 2006 targets two years ahead of schedule! Needless to say, Castrol retains its contract and continues to manage the reprocessing and laundering system for Perkins.

And, having demonstrated the effectiveness of the products and the technology that it brought to the partnership, Castrol is now working with Perkins to investigate other opportunities to improve the way its fluids are managed.

Castrol contract manager Adam Cavanagh explains that the gains are mutual.

'We are not selling product, we are selling solutions.

The contract we have with Perkins enables us to generate revenue even though we are supplying less cutting fluid.

And it helps us to meet our environmental obligations as part of the BP Group'.

Summing up the relationship Chris Baty-Symes says it is very professionally handled by Castrol, who are extremely focused on the activities they are supporting.

'They have delivered tangible results that are not just financial.

Thanks to the close working partnership we are now disposing of less than 10% of the fluid that previously left the Peterborough site as waste, and that is a huge environmental benefit'.