When you’re manufacturing thousands of chuck jaws every week, it pays to have every part of the process running smoothly, especially when it comes to tooling.
Thame Workholding is a proud British manufacturer and member of the Made in Britain initiative, the team started noticing a drop in performance in one of their most demanding processes: serrating operations.
“We were only getting about 300 sets of serrations per hob,” explains Luke Hawkins, Production Manager. “With each hob costing around £3,000, that kind of tool life just wasn’t sustainable.”
As part of a team that prides itself on attention to detail, Luke and his colleagues already had performance data on file. A closer look confirmed what they suspected — their coolant just wasn’t keeping up, especially in hard water conditions.
Looking for a Better Way
That’s when Thame reached out to the team at Chem Arrow. The two companies already shared values around quality, innovation and British manufacturing, so when Chem Arrow recommended their ArrowCool SOL835 H coolant, specifically designed for hard water environments, the team at Thame were keen to give it a try.
“We had previously worked with Chem Arrow and therefore we trust their products,” says Marcus Hamlyn, Sales Director at Thame Workholding. “This particular solution sounded like exactly what we needed.”
The Results: Longer Tool Life, Less Maintenance
The impact was immediate. “We quadrupled the life of the hob tools — up to 1,200 sets of serrations per tool,” says Luke, Thame's Production Manager. “That’s a massive saving. We’re avoiding at least three hob replacements, which adds up to around £12,000 per year saving.”
And the benefits didn’t stop there. The new fluid brought a big improvement in coolant stability too, eliminating the foaming issues they used to fight with, reducing bacterial growth in tanks, and removing the need for sump side additives.
“It’s made life easier all round,” adds Luke. “It’s just a more stable system now. Less tweaking, fewer interventions, better consistency.”
A Collaborative Win
For Thame Workholding, the switch to ArrowCool SOL835H has been revolutionary, helping them improve machining performance while saving both time and money.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve what we do,” says Marcus. “Working with Chem Arrow has helped us take another step forward — and the results speak for themselves.”