through spindle coolant problems

mitcht · Nov 5, 2014

Two of the Haas machines where I work have been making a lot of noise when running through spindle coolant. We have technicians come out and they replace rotary union but the noise comes back after a few weeks.
Any thoughts on what could be causing repeated failure off the rotary unions?
Technicians haven't given us any reasons for the failures.
We run some pretty small thru coolant drills (.17-.23 diameter) up to 7500 rpm.

BGL · Nov 6, 2014

I know one thing about rotary unions, you must filter the coolant.

Red James · Nov 6, 2014

BGL said:
I know one thing about rotary unions, you must filter the coolant.

Agree with this 100% ! I have also added a filter to the flood coolant on my machine. I have been doing a lot of aluminum, and the slivers have been plugging my coolant nozzles. Filtering the chips out of the coolant is important!

Matt@RFR · Nov 6, 2014

It could also be runout in the motor shaft that the union screws in to. I just had a union physically break at the threads, and when it did, it bent the motor shaft. No warning either, and a $500 union cost me a $5,000 motor.

In any case, I learned that Haas wants under .0002" TIR on the motor shaft. Might check that. Mine currently has .006". :eek:

mitcht · Nov 6, 2014

They have filters on the machines but I don't know when the last time they were changed if ever. So I took the time to change both of them today. I'll have to ask the technician about the motor shaft thing when they come out.

mitcht · Nov 13, 2014

A technician came to the shop yesterday and couldn't find any thing wrong. I did learn a couple things, the part that causes noise on these is not technically a rotary union but it does the same thing. These are 2 carbide contacts that come together and seal when the tsc is turned on, they chatter and make noise if they are worn or air pressure is out of adjustment.
The technician made a slight adjustment to the air pressure, that made the noise go away for now. They have done this air pressure adjustment in the past but the noise always returns after a short time. They say to just run it until it starts to leak. We just have to put up with the awful growling noise i guess.
They are belt drive, two speed spindles so that eliminates the motor shaft theory.

sagespecialized · Nov 13, 2014

You could be sucking in an air pocket when the TCS is turned on depending on how often it runs and that will make the pumps cavatate and make lots of noise. I have had pumps bleed out there prime if they weren't used daily and even then we always made sure the coolant was full to begin with.

You might try to bleed out the air in the pump while the TCS is on then maintain the coolant tanks full to see if that changes things...

Spinit · Mar 13, 2015

Running material like phenolic will clog up the system of any machine with fine powder and it is wet. Often times I have been told by techs they have to start taking off hoses and covers in order to clean it up. It is so annoying that if such material is run then people invest in dust pick up suckers that will do a good job of capturing the stuff or similar powdery material.

If you do enough remove all the coolant and put in something to block the dust from getting into the coolant tank areas. These materials are bad for machines and usually people avoid running the material and will sub this stuff out. Yet if you have things set up to protect your machine and maintain it well you can be making money running it. Do not charge too little though for doing the job because it is a hassle to do.

brian.pallas · Mar 27, 2015

You could check your precharge air pressure. If it is set to high the carbide piece at the end of the drawbar is getting pushed on to hard when you turn the TSC on and the carbide piece will wear out and you will have to replace your drawbar. It gets noisy before if fails completely. And when it fails you can't do a tool change either, because there is nothing on the end of the drawbar to get pushed on to release the tool. The procedures for how to check it are in the maintenance book, or you can call Haas and they will tell you how to do it.

KTownMillwright · Nov 3, 2015

Vf3 had high gear fault going off intermittently, Worked fine in high and low gear, just got the fault regularly. Took the solenoid assembly out, regulator with the small orifice, air manifold to the copper pipes with the small orifice, main air supply assembly and 3 solenoid/valves, gear change, pre charge and purge, all came out and cleaned. High gear alarm stopped but the first TSC tool threw the precharge failure alarm. When I manually activate the TSC solenoid, or M88 in MDI, coolant dumps in the spindle somewhere, leaks out around a shaft. Anyone help me out?

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through spindle coolant problems

mitcht

Plastic

BGL

Hot Rolled

Red James

Stainless

Matt@RFR

Titanium

mitcht

Plastic

mitcht

Plastic

sagespecialized

Cast Iron

Spinit

Titanium

brian.pallas

Hot Rolled

KTownMillwright

Plastic

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