Fluid elements in machine tools

Fluids play a major role for production machinery and serve for very different tasks as lubricating, tempering, cleaning, transmitting force and energy. Due to maintenance requirements and the environmental impact their utilization is under discussion and alternatives are looked for. In this paper an overview of the latest research activities in the field of fluidic elements on machine tools is presented. The topic of the paper includes an overview of the fluids used in machine tools, the usage of fluidic elements, supply and treatment units, and their influence on machine tools performance. A link to fluidic media on energy efficiency is given. Research challenges in order to increase the performance of machine tools are discussed. The paper excludes metal working fluids, which have been treated in Brinksmeier et al. [33].