Hangsterfer’s Laboratories S-787 fluid was a response to environmental concerns and regulation. S-787 is free of boron, chlorine,
formaldehyde and secondary amines.
January 2016 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 57
Metalworking fluids
Family Fluids Business Changes with Times
Bill KoenigSenior Editor
Hangsterfer’s Laboratories evolves
while remaining a family company Hangsterfer’s Laboratories faces the same challenges
as other companies in the metalworking fluids indus-
try. Environmental concern and regulatory demands
have increased. Customer demands have intensified
as manufacturers in industries such as aerospace use more
difficult-to-machine metals such as titanium and Inconel.
Today, metalworking fluids must “comply with the latest
environmental regulations while providing the performance
requirements for today’s demanding manufacturing needs,”
said Edward Jones, COO and technical director at Hangster-
fer’s. “We expect the growth of value-added components such
as aluminum, composites, nickel and titanium to continue to
grow exponentially and advanced fluids will be essential to this
industrial sector.”
58 AdvancedManufacturing.org | January 2016
Metalworking fluids
Environmental regulations and use of new alloys and
materials continue to be a major concern in the
metalworking fluids industry, both for producers and
companies that help recycle fluid.
“Historically, nearly a third of our sales come from prod-
ucts that did not exist three years ago,” said Kevin Tucker,
product technology and marketing director at Cincinnati-
based Cimcool Fluid Technology, part of Milacron Holdings
Corp. “We always have new products being introduced.”
“Certainly, we see the regulatory environment as a con-
tinuing challenge,” Tucker said. “Raw material supply and
availability is often a concern as suppliers also continue to
look at cost savings. The continuing evolution to lighter,
stronger, harder metal alloys always drives the demand for
new technology.”
Cimcool has provided vegetable-based
fluids for more than 40 years. The company
acquired Starchem Fluids, which led to more
vegetable-based fluid offerings. Cimcool
products include the Cimfree line, which are
all vegetable-based.
A new product line is Cimpulse, introduced
in September. The company markets Cimpulse
as “one fluid for all shops and all markets.”
Cimpulse 51MP, Cimpulse 45MP and Cim-
pulse 33MP are formulated so metalworking
shops can use a single fluid throughout their
operations. According to the company, Cim-
pulse fluids have a hybrid blend of lubricants.
“Cimpulse Fluids is the fastest growing
product line we have ever introduced,” Tucker
said. Cimpulse originated from the company’s aerospace
team. “While most of our fluids are targeted to very specific
metals, applications, industries or even duty range, our
Cimpulse fluids are for all customers who only want to
stock one fluid that can do nearly everything.”
Tucker said increased regulatory and customer demand
may result in industry consolidation. “It is becoming more
difficult for smaller companies to meet all of the regulatory
and supply requirements.”
Kalamazoo, MI-based PRAB manufacturers systems
to reclaim and recycle metalworking fluids from processes
that generate chips and turnings.
“The demand for complete scrap metal and fluid pro-
cessing continues to remain strong,” said Mike Hill, PRAB
vice president of sales and marketing.
“Metalworking companies and OEMs all recognize
the importance of automating the waste management
process for recycle and reuse as a means of cutting
costs, improving health and safety, and enhancing
operational processes.”
The systems PRAB makes for customers vary accord-
ing to the type of production process used.
“Milling, drilling, tapping, boring and grinding operations
have varying profiles of solids and moisture content,” Hill
said. “Our standard operating procedure is to run a batch
sample of customer-supplied metal/fluid scrap prior to
making equipment recommendations.”
PRAB’s coolant recycle system is called the Guardian.
PRAB has added an ozone injection module for its
equipment, Hill said. “This type of system typically works
for all common types of coolants” such as “water-based,
soluble oils, semisynthetic coolants and alkaline cleaners.”
Such a unit “is the size of a briefcase and works in
conjunction with coolant recycling equipment,” he said.
“Ozone is a natural way to control bacteria and eliminates
the need for a biocide.”
Hill also said he expects “a continued trend toward
more water-based fluids and less oil-based fluids” being
requested by customers.
Regulations, New Alloys Remain Key in Fluids Industry
PRAB’s coolant recycling system the Guardian. This version is equipped
with a Paperbed filter which captures the metal fines from the chip
processing system and then feeds the dirty coolant into the Guardian.
The coolant is clean for reuse after a single pass.
60 AdvancedManufacturing.org | January 2016
The world and the business are entirely different than
when Hangsterfer’s was founded nearly eight decades ago.
Hangsterfer’s products include metalworking fluids, coolant
concentrates, cutting oils, “grease like” (according to the
company’s Web site) metalforming compounds that pre-
vent metal-to-metal contact at the tool-workpiece interface,
machine lubricants and dielectric fluids for EDMs that are
used to cut and shape parts. The company also makes rust
inhibitors and cleaning fluids.
The one thing that has remained the
same is the company’s family ownership.
The Mantua, NJ-based producer of
fluids was founded by William Hang-
sterfer in 1937. He was born in 1896.
The fluids company was his second
business. Five years earlier, the World
War I veteran started a firm that distrib-
uted items such as motor oil and tires.
The businessman decided to start a
fluids company because in his distribu-
tion business, “he learned early on the
importance of quality lubricants with
the motor oil sales he was involved in,”
said COO Jones, 52, and a grandson
of the founder.
Hangsterfer’s benefited as industrial
output rose with the start of World War
II. The US war effort required more
difficult-to-machine parts, which in turn
spurred demand for fluids produced
by Hangsterfer’s. Today, the company
estimates it controls 1% of the world
market for its products.
Edward Jones has been with the
company since 1984. Jones said he
worked with his grandfather in the
laboratory and cared for him “in his later
years as his personal assistant.” William
Hangsterfer died in 1983.
Hangsterfer had one daughter, Ann,
who was born in 1937, the same year
the company was founded. She married
Edward Jones, the father of the present
COO. The older Edward Jones, whose
duties at the company included being
vice president of sales, died in 2008.
Ann Jones is the company’s CEO.
The executive offices at Hangster-
fer’s are a family affair, with members
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Metalworking fluids
January 2016 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 61
Beth Ann Jones-Sheehan, 46, sister of the COO, is vice
president and general counsel. She also is vice president
of the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association.
Another brother, Bill Jones, 55, is a senior vice president who
has been with Hangsterfer’s full-time since 1980. Another
sibling, Leslie Jones, 58, is retired from Hangsterfer’s.
Members of the fourth generation have started to work
at the company: Nicolette Jones, 22, daughter of Edward, is
research manager; Andrew Jones, also 22 and son of Bill, is
executive assistant. There are three other fourth-generation fam-
ily members who are in their teens.
“All are interested in coming into the business,” COO
Edward Jones said. “We have really turned into a ‘busi-
ness family.’”
A Company Evolves
The enterprise has evolved over the course of those
generations.
“In the 1940s, we developed a synthetic whale oil replace-
ment,” COO Jones said. “We started exporting in the 1950s;
at that time our largest export market was Japan. Since the
1950s, our exports have been about 40% of our production
and that percentage remains today. Our heavy involvement
with international business has always kept us in line with not
just the very important USA regulatory trends, but also other
industrial nations’ trends.”
With metalworking fluids, European regulators have taken
the lead in requiring more “bio-renewable” lubricants. As in-
䄀 䐀椀瘀椀猀椀漀渀 漀昀㨀
William Hangsterfer, founder of Hangsterfer’s Laboratories,
riding a bull during the 1970s.
62 AdvancedManufacturing.org | January 2016
ternational regulatory standards tightened, Jones said,
“We were for the most part ready.”
Another change took place in the 1950s when Hang-
sterfer’s become involved in the aerospace market.
“We developed a full line of chlorine-free cutting
fluids at that time,” he said. “Chlorine-free is a very
important feature that the aerospace industry demands
due to the potential for corrosion. Aerospace is a very
important industrial sector.”
The COO’s path through the company mirrored the
evolution of the fluids business.
“I started with our ‘business family’ when it had 12
employees,” Jones said. “One of those key employees
who was in charge of compounding our top product of
that time, S-500, left the company and I replaced him.”
Jones ended up spending two years in the factory.
“My experience in our factory has helped me better un-
derstand the complexities of manufacturing lubricants,”
he said. “Throughout my childhood, the talk at the
Metalworking fluids
William Hangsterfer, founder of Hangsterfer’s Laboratories, in 1937,
the year he founded the company.
64 AdvancedManufacturing.org | January 2016
Sunday dinner table was often about business, so my path
into the company was quite natural.”
After his factory stint, he took a laboratory job as a quality
control chemist and later he went into sales. “Once in the
sales [arena], the biggest challenge I faced was price,” he
said. “The types of raw materials we used and their influence
on the selling price was a sales volume obstacle.”
Regulatory Pressure
Hangsterfer’s today is dealing with a
variety of challenges.
“Our industry and our customers
are facing major changes to the norm,”
Edward Jones said. “The use of boron,
chlorine, formaldehyde and secondary
amines are being placed under extreme
regulatory pressure.”
One example is the REACH program
of the European Commission. It refers
to registration, evaluation and authori-
zation of chemical substances. REACH
is intended to “improve the protection
of human health and the environment
through the better and earlier identi-
fication of the intrinsic properties of
chemical substances,” according to the
European Commission.
REACH “places responsibility on
industry to manage the risks from
chemicals and to provide safety
information on the substances.” The
program requires makers and importers
to provide data about chemicals and
to register the information in a central
database operated by the European
Chemicals Agency.
One response by the company to
environmental regulations is its S-787
semisynthetic cutting fluid, which
Jones said is free of boron, chlorine
and the other substances and works
well on machining of nickel and
titanium alloys. Hangsterfer’s mar-
kets S-787 as a multipurpose fluid.
Jones said he made a presentation
at a UK aerospace conference about
S-787 and plans to present the same
materials at IMTS during the Trends in
Advanced Machining, Manufacturing
and Materials conference.
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R&D
“We have a
very thorough
research and de-
velopment sys-
tem and nothing
leaves our lab
unless it passes
an extensive
regimen of tests
and eventually
field verification,”
Jones said. “We
consider a new
product on the
market to be
no less than six months old and often [it will be] two years old before we would
consider it suitable for the global marketplace. Petroleum-based cutting oils are
quickly being replaced with more advanced synthetic and vegetable-based fluids.”
Newer Hangsterfer’s products contain less than 10% petroleum, compared
with older products that have more than 60% petroleum.
“Since the 1940s, our use of the synthetic whale oil replacement has helped us
better understand the use of renewable oils and fats,” Jones said. The company
introduced oils with “up to 30% renewables” in the 1950s “and since then have
incorporated more and more vegetable oils,” he said.
“It took many decades to come out with cutting oils and coolants that were
predominantly vegetable oils because the quality of vegetable oils that met our
standards and our customers’ needs had not been available until just about 15
years ago.”
Beyond technical and environmental issues, “We need to make safe and com-
fortable workplaces to keep and attract the talent necessary in today’s workforce,”
Jones said. “Jobs in our sector of met-
alworking will continue to rise and the
industry has to change… to keep that
pace going.”
Hangsterfer’s reminds its customers
that it is family run. There’s an image of
the founder on the company web site,
which also references how it’s being
managed by the third generation of
the family.
COO Jones said the founder still has
an impact on the company he started.
“One of our core philosophies is environ-
mentally friendly products without sacrifice
to performance.”
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PRAB800-968-7722 / prab.com
?
Edward Jones, now COO of Hangsterfer’s Laboratories, working
in a company factory in the 1980s.