Antibacterial Coating on Filtration Membranes for Treatment of Cutting Fluid

Abstract: Cutting fluids has greater significance in manufacturing processes to ensure work-piece quality, to reduce tool wear, and to improve process productivity. The specific chemical composition of an applied coolant should be strongly dependent on the scope of application. Even small changes such as presence of microorganisms such as Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Pseudomonas, Alcaligenes etc. can influence the performance of cutting fluid and introduce risk of various skin diseases to the operator in the manufacturing processes considerably. In this project the antibacterial coating is brought into use by coating a thin layer of silver nano particles on a polypropylene filtration membrane. A coated and non-coated membrane was placed separately on the cutting fluid sump of a vertical milling machine. 10litres of cutting fluid with a Servo cut Soil content of 5% and distilled water with a concentration of 95% were used in the machine while a milling process was carried out. Then a sample of cutting fluid (about 250mL) was taken from the tank and preserved for testing purposes after passing through the filter membranes. On the same cutting fluid, the machine was run for another two days, and a third sample was taken at the end of the fourth day. The samples collected were tested at Azyme Biosciences Pvt Ltd for bacterial count (CFU/ml) and the results showed that the CFU/ ml in the sample filtered through the non-coated polypropylene filtration membrane was higher than in the sample filtered via coated polypropylene filtration membrane.