Milltek Sport - Oilfree Lubricants Ltd

Global Sports Performance Exhausts manufacturer adopts
“Lean Green Manufacturing Process”
Milltek Sport is a global manufacturer of high performance exhaust systems, exporting to nearly 80 countries.
All the design and manufacturing is completed in house, at two centres in the UK.
More than 29 years of continuous exhaust development, has placed Milltek Sport at the forefront of tuning
companies and “Petrol Heads”, who desire the ultimate performance enhancing system, to complement their
cherished car.
The technical expertise at Milltek Sport has enabled them to offer one of the most comprehensive selections of
performance exhausts for key marques such as Audi, Porsche, BMW and Nissan. In fact such is their range of
products, they can supply systems for most brands, from Aston Martin to Volkswagen.
This dedication to motor performance must classify the Milltek Sport engineers as “Petrol Heads” a group not
noted for environmental considerations, but Milltek Sport takes its environmental targets seriously and has made
significant changes to employ a leaner exhaust manufacturing process which reduces waste and power
consumption.
To enable the Milltek Sport systems to produce maximum results, all exhaust are manufactured in high quality
304 aircraft grade stainless steel. A key component in the system is the bent or formed tube which connects the
various boxes in the system.
This quality of stainless steel is used on all pipework and the total construction of the silencer. Mandrel bending
of the tubes ensures full flow bends for better gas flow and Milltek Sport’s systems use a larger tube bore size
compared to other manufacturers, to ensure ultimate performance without loss of mid-range torque.
The production of mandrel bent tubes for exhaust systems has traditionally been produced on hydraulic
machines, which create a lot of heat and noise and invariably cause a lot of housekeeping issues, such as leaking
hydraulic pipes.
In August 2010 Milltek Sport invested in a state of the art all electric CNC tube bender from Unison Intelligent
Tube Technology. Unison claim, this type of machine reduces power consumption by 90%, compared to old
traditional hydraulic benders.
This computer controlled bender, enables Milltek Sport to produce mandrel bent tubes in a virtually noiseless
environment, with none of the fluid spills and mess created by the old hydraulic system.
The only use of fluids in the bending process was chlorinated oil for the lubrication of the mandrel. The residue
of oil within the tube presented problems in follow on processes, such as cleaning and welding. The chlorinated
oil also made working with the tube an unpleasant experience for the tube bending machine operators.
The solution was IRMCO® 980-000 oil free tube bending gel, a high performance non-toxic clean lubricant.
This enabled Milltek Sport to produce the high quality large bore pipes for their systems, without the typical
problems caused by chlorinated oil.

IRMCO® 980-000 Gel uses 75% less
lubricant volume compared with
traditional oils, it enables weld without
washing and will not cause weld quality
problems.
Milltek Sport’s General manager Dave
Marshall explains, “The introduction of
IRMCO bending gel has made a
significant improvement to our exhaust
production facility, with easier handling
and cleaning. The machine operators
enjoy the cleaner working environment
compared to how it was with oil based
lubricants”.
If IRMCO® 980-000 Gel needs to be removed from the parts the ideal cleaning solution is plain water. Any
mild alkaline aqueous cleaning system will give excellent results with reduced waste and disposal costs, even to
aerospace standards.
IRMCO® 980-000 Gel is the only tube bending gel to have 3 aerospace approvals and is ideal for Mild steel,
Stainless steel, Titanium and Inconel.
As you would expect from a leader in performance technology, Milltek Sport have plans to introduce new
products using exotic alloys such as Titanium, so IRMCO® gel will keep pace with Milltek Sport’s product
development plans.
Application of the IRMCO® 980-000 Gel can be manual or automatic. The Unison bender has been supplied to
Milltek Sport with a fully automatic system, which pumps a measured amount of gel through the mandrel. This
system applies minimal lubricant at the key point in the forming process and is controlled by the CNC system.
It is noticeable, how nearly two years in production the CNC bender looks as pristine as the day it was installed.
The machine incorporates a laser scanning safety system and as there is no excess mandrel lubricant to drip and
trigger machine shut downs, another source of potential waste is eliminated.
Milltek Sport are not resting on their laurels, they are currently running a long term trial on reducing the amount
of coolant used in the cutting process by long term testing of another IRMCO product.
The combination of the Unison machine and IRMCO® 980-000 Gel produces a clean bending process, which
will make a significant contribution to Milltek Sport’s environmental targets and business development. In fact
it can be described as a true “lean green” manufacturing process.
Oilfree Lubricants Ltd
Calendar Farm
Cottesbrooke Estate
Northampton NN6 8PJ April 2012