Drilling stainless steel

[tflnemesis]

Hi,

I have read a few threads on drilling stainless steel on here but I have question...

I have a big job coming up in a couple of months working in a food preparation factory, we will be drilling a few hundred holes in 2-4mm stainless steel.

We have cobalt and HSS bits, but, because its in a food preparation area we can't use any of our usual coolants.

So do you guys know of anything we can use that will be safe? I thought of using vegetable oil but i am unsure if this will affect the cutting of the drill or become a possible contaminant if it gets hot and burns the oil?

Any thoughts?

 

[500e]

Talk to Sandvic
http://www.sme.org/uploadedFiles/Pu...2012/January_2012/January 2012 f3 Cutting.pdf

 

[Hitch]

If you are doing any amount of drilling, surely they need to do a deep clean afterwards anyway...I'd insist that happened after. I'd be more concerned about swarf getting where it shouldn't be than a bit of oil.

Did a job last year, drilled some holes on a production conveyor system, caught as much debris as practical, then handed over to the engineering team it needed a deep clean as normally happens. Next day we had a call saying they had to bin a load of products because they found traces of swarf....

Not our problem, should have been cleaned after.

 

[tflnemesis]

Thanks for your replies guys, The place where this is going to be happening has a very good cleaning and safety record, so the swarf isn't a worry. The problem comes when they do their deep cleaning, they use high pressure water to clean down the whole place and i am concerned that the water might get behind the equipment we are installing, lift the coolant and contaminate the equipment they use. All of the equipment we are installing is sealed and waterproof.

 

[Paul.]

I use foodsafe penetrating oil when drilling on live food machinery, most food factory engineers will have some in the workshop, foodsafe grease is another option it looks like lard and is sticky enough to stop swarf flying around
This is the one I use, http://www.hydepark-environmental.com/foodcare-penetrating-oil-spray-400ml-1.html

 

[Hitch]

Never had an issue with this in any food/drink processing environment i've had to work in, even in high risk areas.

You'd only be using very small amount of oil anyway, make sure its a viscous one so it can be wiped away leaving minimal residue....
Then a good hosing down should sort it.
Is this an issue the customer has bought up with you?

They all seem more interested in whether you have a snickers bar or a bag of nuts in your lunchbox than how the job is done theses days.

 

[tflnemesis]

The customer hasn't brought up an issue with any work we have completed before but our previous work was always in low risk areas and small jobs. This upcoming work is a huge contract compared to what we have been doing there before and more big works in the offing so we want to make sure we do the best job we can with minimal cost to our bottom line. We just don't want something we do to bite us in the ass later and cost us the big contracts down the line.

 

[tflnemesis]

I use foodsafe penetrating oil when drilling on live food machinery, most food factory engineers will have some in the workshop, foodsafe grease is another option it looks like lard and is sticky enough to stop swarf flying around
This is the one I use, http://www.hydepark-environmental.com/foodcare-penetrating-oil-spray-400ml-1.html

Thanks for the link Paul we will investigate it and see how well it will work for us.

 

[CRB]

I used to do a load of 'food' factories.

Signed in, got kitted out, hat, shoes and coat, then walked thirty yards across the road to the site I was visiting.

Crispy Pancake maker. MINGING no question. They were not worried about swarf, after all we were climbing all over the machines anyway.

Got a bit of blue nylon bristle in my Dorset Cereal this morning.

Can't catch everything.

 

[Paul.]

Many food factories are very heavily audited by their customers nowadays, especially those that supply the high street fast food joints and major supermarkets, the findings and recommendations thrown up in the audits then get passed down the line to the outside contractors who have to work to the standards laid down, in recent years with EFSIS and BRC, food hygiene standards have raised quite dramatically, what would be acceptable for a high risk area a few years ago is barely suitable for low risk nowadays. companies cant afford to have too many foreign body incidents, the loss of one cooking or similar processing contract can cost millions or even shut them down.

 

[Hitch]

Scotch Eggs is one of our regulars

 

[Rocketman]

Altin coated carbide is what I believe people use without coolant on stainless

I would advise a rigid machine though.

 

[tflnemesis]

Altin coated carbide is what I believe people use without coolant on stainless

I would advise a rigid machine though.

A rigid drill would be nice, but its all vertical sheet and pistol drills..

 

[Rocketman]

That is a problem then. Don't think I would risk using those drills with a pistol.

 

[squazy84]

bolube