A leading lubricant manufacturer has created a patent-pending soluble metalworking fluid as a practical alternative to fluids which contain formalin donor biocides. As well as overcoming difficult legislative issues, the technology has been proven to increase tool life by up to one-and-a-half times.
Historically, the metalworking industry has relied on traditional formalin donor biocide technology to offer equipment the best possible sump life. Formaldehyde is a chemical compound which occurs naturally in the environment as a by-product of metabolic processes in humans, animals and through the natural decay process of plant species. It is even detectable in human breath at low levels.
For some time, formaldehyde itself has been classified as a category 1B carcinogen. New legislation now affects certain formalin donor biocides. Under the recent update to CLP regulation, ATP (Adaptation to Technical Progress, review May 4 2017), any product or treated article which contains certain formalin donor biocides (to protect the function of the product) will need to be labelled as a category 1B carcinogen. Under the changes planned to the labelling of certain chemicals, formalin donating agents have been re-classified according to their total potential to donate formaldehyde and not through actual measurement in use.
Examples of the biocides affected include methylene bis-morpholine (MBM) and methylene bis(5-methyloxazolidine) (MBO).
Changes to labelling are required to meet the new CLP (Classification, Labelling & Packaging) regulations adopted by the European Union. As a result, through no changes in product formulation, certain products will carry additional hazard labelling.
The deadline for biocide manufacturers to update their CLP Hazard labelling was December 1st 2018. Under the updated CLP labelling regulations, products containing more than 0.1% or 1,000 PPM (parts per million) of these formalin donor biocides (MBM and MBO) will carry the category 1B Hazard Identification.
Paul Tierney, technical product manager at Fuchs Lubricants says: “Fuchs Ecocool Ultra-Motive soluble metalworking fluid has been designed to address the future global environmental and health and safety requirements for water miscible metalworking fluids.
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