The Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association, in partnership with three other industry groups, is planning a metalworking fluid symposium for October 5-8, 2008, in Dearborn, Mich. The symposium will present the latest trends and advances in metal removal fluids, including health and safety, global regulations, best practices and sustainability.
Conference chairman John Burke, with Houghton International of Valley Forge, Pa., noted that this will be the third industry symposium to address metalworking fluid health and safety issues. The last symposium was in 1997, Burke told Lube Report. We need an open forum to discuss new issues that have come up, and concerns about chemical usage. What research is going on now? What research is needed in the future?
Sustainability is a new focus and a key focus, Burke added. This includes using biobased fluids, recycling and waste treatment. Not just sources, but also operations and disposal must be sustainable.
Conference topics will include health and safety effects and occupational medicine; exposure measurements and guidelines; managing metal removal fluids in the plant and best practices; gobal regulatory issues; and sustainability and future trends.
ILMA, the Alexandria, Va.-based trade association representing U.S. companies that manufacture finished lubricants and are not owned or controlled by base oil refiners, estimates that its members make about 75 percent of the metalworking fluids sold in the United States.
In sponsoring the 2008 symposium, ILMA is partnering with the Automotive Industry Action Group, a trade association of automakers (including DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda and Toyota) and their tier-one suppliers; the American Industrial Hygiene Association; and UEIL, the Union of the European Independent Lubricant Industry, ILMAs European counterpart.
The call for papers and posters will take place in September 2007, and will be posted at the ILMA web site, www.ilma.org.