If you find yourself cleaning the coolant tank more frequently than you would like-and hate being dirty all the time-then you have a lot of people with you... and a solution. According to the company, MP Systems, located in East Granby, Connecticut, designed a compact unit that can be connected to almost any standard fuel tank, filter out fines and debris, and return large amounts of clean coolant with minimal maintenance To the machine. From a workshop with a large horizontal machining center (HMC) that runs 24/7 with water-based coolant, to a Swiss turning machine that runs on oil, customers have reported excellent results. 

Micromachines are a good example. A multinational company that manufactures high-precision parts for the semiconductor industry, its US operations are located in what CEO Chris Borch said is the most expensive region in the world-Silicon Valley. The company's goal is to run Jiutai Makino a61 4-axis HMC for 160 hours a week, most of which are "lights off". In Borch's view, this is the only way to compete in this environment. "The correct way to think about cost is not how much the machine will cost, but how much it costs to run per hour," he said. Borch pointed out that even a multi-million-dollar machine, if it runs around the clock, has an astonishingly low cost per hour.

One flexible manufacturing system (FMS) provides 500 mm pallets for six machines, while another FMS provides services for three other machines, with more than 300 tools in each HMC's changer. They are set up to manufacture a large number of parts, which causes the cooling system to handle a large amount of material. In fact, Borch identified the coolant problem as the company's "number one root cause of lost hours." The pump is clogged or malfunctioning, or you have to remove the water tank and remove the conveyor and clean an area because this sludge will accumulate. "

This is because Micro Mechanics' HMC, like most of its machines, is equipped with a chip conveyor that can only take away larger chips. As Borch explained, “Small debris and fines are not discharged through the conveyor system. They just settle in the puddle. The industry’s traditional way of dealing with this problem is to evacuate the water tank, get in there, and scoop them out. But this is a very messy and dirty job. It will take time, and of course, your machine is down."

Borch said that in addition to the frequent irritation of unplanned shutdowns due to pump blockages and other reasons, Micro-Mechanics usually needs to clean the oil sump on each machine every three months. He calculated that the time required for each machine to clean the tank and put it back into production totaled 12 to 24 hours. With 9 machines, this means an average loss of 54 hours of production time per month. In addition, two operators are required to undertake heavy non-value-added work. A few months later, Borch decided to try the Purge filtration system from MP Systems. With the cleaning device, the maintenance cycle is immediately converted to a five-minute process of replacing cheap filter bags every three weeks. Borch said it is certain that the operator evacuated all the coolant from the tank for inspection after three months. "The water tank is very clean, it looks like it has been polished," he said. "This is a huge benefit because it eliminates the need to manually clean the sump. This product is a home run."

The cleaning system works with standard coolant tanks and requires only a few square feet of additional space. First, the debris pump draws dirty coolant from the machine water tank near the conveyor outlet (or "dirty side of the water tank"), usually at a flow rate of 30-60 gpm. Kyle Quintin, product development manager at MP Systems, reports that the pump is designed to handle fine chips and chips without significant wear.

From there, the dirty coolant passes under pressure through the filter tank in the nearby washing tank. The filter media is an industry standard 7" deep × 32"- (17.78 × 81.28-cm) long bag. Quintin reports that most applications can meet 5 μm bags. A typical Purge has four such bags. After the fluid passes through the filter bag, the now clean coolant flows down from the washer into the clean side of the coolant tank at the same rate as the input (for example, 60 gpm).

From there, the machine's coolant pump supplies the machine with clean coolant at a lower flow rate than the cleaning agent (for example, 40 gpm). Quintin explained that this arrangement keeps the clean coolant flowing in the positive direction, so that the clean coolant rests on the grid that separates the cleaner from the dirty side of the tank. Therefore, debris in the fuel tank is always encouraged to flow to the cleaning inlet so that they can be filtered and sent back to the clean part of the fuel tank, where the coolant pump needs it most.

Quintin also explained that Purge monitors the incoming pressure, which increases as the filter gets dirty. "Based on this pressure, we can calculate the remaining life of the filter, or the system distance can no longer maintain sufficient flow." When the bag is almost full, the blue light flashes, and the screen tells the operator to replace the bag, if the bag is full , The debris pump will automatically shut down. Changing the bag is as simple as loosening the four wing nuts on the top of each tank. Take out the complete bag, put it in a clean bag, and tighten the nuts. The whole process takes less than five minutes.

"The best part is that you don't have to turn off the machine when you do this, because it's an auxiliary system on the side," Quintin said. "The beauty of the Purge device is that it is a complete, ready-to-use, easy-to-install software package. It is also compact. The floor space of the workshop is very valuable, and it is difficult to add peripherals to your machine after your area is configured. . Therefore, it is very exciting for people to find a small, easy-to-install system that can be up and running within a few hours without any problems.” According to MP Systems, the Purge system can be The cost will be recovered within a year or so, the machine use time will be increased, and the operator will be freed up to work on more efficient tasks.

At the Fiberglass and Composites Technology (FACT) in Wichita, Kansas, the chips produced by processing fiberglass pipes and fittings on CNC lathes are easily captured by standard conveyors. But according to plant manager Rick Davis, it also generates a large amount of dust that cannot be produced. Davis explained that FACT fills the cutting area with coolant not to extend tool life, but to "flush everything and prevent dust from flying around." However, Davis said the problem was that "in two months, three-quarters of the tanks were full of sediment."

At that time, FACT will encounter flow problems and insufficient pressure at the machine nozzles because the pump lacks coolant. Davis is also concerned that the pump will wear out prematurely due to fiberglass recirculation. At first, the only solution was to pull out the water tank and clean everything. This process took a whole day. This is not an acceptable maintenance cycle for Davis, so FACT invested in a four-bag cleaning system.

Now, the routine is to pull the bags about 3/4 of a distance at the end of business on Friday, and then let them empty on the weekend. "In this way, you have captured 99% of the coolant in these bags," Davis explained. "Then on Monday, we toss the old bag in the trash can and put it in the new bag. This is a very simple process for us." If the size of the product being processed by FACT causes the bag to fill faster, it is not The problem, he said, was because "the alarm system worked very well." It was just a matter of changing the bag earlier than usual.

The challenge of processing titanium ultrasonic blades for brain and spine surgery led to Swissline Precision LLC, Cumberland, RI entering Purge. As the largest Tsugami Swiss-turn user in North America, with more than 56 machines, Swissline has extensive experience in maintaining high output and strict part tolerances. However, the extrusion milling process it uses on this series of blades will produce fine chips, making the machine unable to achieve the expected output. As President Mike Chenevert recalled, “The raw material machine has the usual baffles in the fuel tank, which are arranged in different layers to capture the chips. But the fine particles we get from processing titanium just float in the oil and then pass directly through it. Live everything."

Chenevert added that this application requires high-pressure coolant to adequately remove chips (to prevent damage to the surface of the part), and requires a relatively high amount of coolant. In addition, the risk of fire when machining titanium alloys requires ensuring that the cut is always immersed in oil. But the filtration problem is so serious that Swissline pulls the water tank and cleans everything almost every week. More importantly, several days before cupping, it is necessary to frequently deal with the coolant alarm and chip accumulation inside the machine, which makes it impossible for Swissline to set up any unattended operations.

The installation of purification devices reversed the situation. Now, weekly or sometimes bi-weekly maintenance schedules require filter bags to be replaced, and Chenefert confirms that “it actually takes five minutes. We have increased production. We have minimized machine downtime. The oil is cleaner. And it takes five minutes. These tools have a longer service life because there is not so much residual titanium in the oil. We have seen that the wear of the tools is reduced and they can continue to operate. We have added 5 to 10 additional parts for each blade, in the long run Look, these parts will all add up."

Most importantly, Chenevert explained that Swissline added 42 hours of unmanned operation on weekends. "On Saturday, the operator sets the machine to run when he leaves at noon, and it won't stop running until he comes in on Monday morning." Chenevert said that this alone can pay for the unit in about two weeks .