As of May 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that over 8 million viral tests had been given for COVID-19. That includes tests performed by the CDC and at private labs, health centers, and by public health officials, and it’s a significant increase from the handful of tests performed in January.
Of course, that meant biomedical research companies needed to boost their production of the different testing kit components to make this happen. One such company manufactures the primer and probes needed for the testing kits, and they were off and running after receiving early U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
The Surprising Metalworking Connection to Biomedical Research
This particular biomedical company started production using repurposed equipment from a university. As it grew, it added on to those machines and began creating its own proprietary equipment to manufacture products, which typically include testing kits for infectious diseases and food safety. These are also used to create the COVID-19 testing kit components.
Because so many of their tools are proprietary, the company has an on-site machine shop to manufacture parts for this very specialized equipment. Without these machines, they wouldn’t be able to keep up the production of the kits. The on-site machine shop consists of lathes, mills, and drills that machine steel, stainless steel, and aluminum that becomes parts and robotics to manufacture the synthetic DNA.
How Fluid Makes It All Possible
Master Fluid Solutions® plays a role in keeping the machine shop operational. The company needs high-quality tooling and machining for the parts it uses. Additionally, it has very tight tolerance specifications, which requires using the right metalworking fluid. And because the company manufactures such tightly-controlled products, cleanliness is imperative — foul odors from bad fluid and the resulting possibility of contamination, are simply not acceptable.
The company uses TRIM® E206, a high lubricity soluble oil coolant that provides excellent lubricity and compatibility on both ferrous and nonferrous materials. It’s a versatile coolant that rejects tramp oil to help improve sump life. TRIM E206 utilizes a formaldehyde free bio package that increases sump life resulting in less downtime for the company reducing coolant change outs when the priority is getting parts machined for its primary manufacturing line.
But TRIM E206 isn’t the first Master Fluid Solutions product used by this company. They’ve been a loyal customer for over a decade, and they also use Master STAGES™ Task2™ GF to clean their equipment. This industrial-strength cleaner works well with TRIM fluids and helps the company keep up their cleanliness standards.
It may seem like metalworking and biomedical companies wouldn’t be compatible. However, in the background, the machines used to support manufacturing the COVID-19 test kit components still need the right kind of metalworking fluid to meet stringent specifications and ensure that the final product – testing for a pandemic – is of the highest quality possible.
At Master Fluid Solutions, we’re proud to help in whatever way we can.
To learn more about Master Fluid Solutions and the products we can provide for your metalworking operations, no matter how specialized, call +1 800-537-3365, email us at [email protected], or contact your local distributor.
