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

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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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?

Edward Jones, now COO of Hangsterfer’s Laboratories, working

in a company factory in the 1980s.