Posted by tourdemars to Humans To Mars at January 25, 2006 11:58 AM

Engineers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a method of machining metals that uses ice-cold carbon dioxide to remove cuttings while cooling and lubricating the workpiece. Dubbed Snow-Machining, it could eliminate the need for oil-based and synthetic fluids currently used in the cutting and metal-parts cleaning industries. Experts at the University of Michigan estimate over 200 million gallons of metalworking oils are used annually in the U.S., and the amount of cutting fluid is at least several times that figure.