Excessive/quick wear on Sodick C guide

[M. Roberts]

Good morning all, I hope that everyone is well. Some time back, I had a job for my Sodick AQ 750, that required some 0.197" +/- 0.0002" features, both holes and slots in a 0.200" thick plate. Prior to starting the job, I cleaned and aligned the guides and head...did everything that one would expect to need to do in order to achieve the desired result. Well, I had a difficult time with hitting the tolerance, both diameter and roundness. As it turned out, the C guide, located below the lower guide had a pretty healthy groove cut into it; once changed, the features cut to spec...multiple cuts of course. My quandaries are A) why/how does this worn guide effect the cutting of this feature, and B) why was this worn so much? The wear was in the Y+ direction of the guide. Since that occasion, I have taken the lower head apart, and have noticed the same issue with the C guide; a notch worn on the Y+ side. The guide itself is sapphire; apparently a diamond one is not available. Regardless, the issue is still occurring, the Sodick rep doesn't have an answer....does anyone?
Thanks,
Mark

 

[JZ.]

Good morning all, I hope that everyone is well. Some time back, I had a job for my Sodick AQ 750, that required some 0.197" +/- 0.0002" features, both holes and slots in a 0.200" thick plate. Prior to starting the job, I cleaned and aligned the guides and head...did everything that one would expect to need to do in order to achieve the desired result. Well, I had a difficult time with hitting the tolerance, both diameter and roundness. As it turned out, the C guide, located below the lower guide had a pretty healthy groove cut into it; once changed, the features cut to spec...multiple cuts of course. My quandaries are A) why/how does this worn guide effect the cutting of this feature, and B) why was this worn so much? The wear was in the Y+ direction of the guide. Since that occasion, I have taken the lower head apart, and have noticed the same issue with the C guide; a notch worn on the Y+ side. The guide itself is sapphire; apparently a diamond one is not available. Regardless, the issue is still occurring, the Sodick rep doesn't have an answer....does anyone?
Thanks,
Mark

Have you noticed any issues with repeatability when doing a wire alignment or any of the codeless functions? Did you take the whole lower head apart and the pulley assembly?

Looking at my AQ537 which should be pretty similar to your 750, I would think either the orientation of Guide C is upside down or possibly the lower head pulley assembly isn't seated quite right.

Do you have a lot of wear on your lower conductivity piece or any wire tension issues?

 

[Shane030173]

As jz said make sure the larger opening is at the top. These need to be rotated 90 deg every 500 hours and replaced every 2000. Your thread pipe may be slightly bent as well causing the wire to rub the guide during threading. Also, make sure your heads haven't moved. Hold an indicator on your upper head to check you lower . To check the upper head put your indicator and the table and move your upper head up and down to make sure its straight.

 

[M. Roberts]

Thanks for the tips guys...I will have to check on which way the guide is oriented...I'm pretty sure that the small end goes up towards the upper head...at least that is what my memory says. By 500 hours, they have a significant groove worn in it.... Yes, the entire lower head has been taken apart and cleaned. I am cutting composites which aren't the most conductive materials in the world, so any repeatability issues, I contribute to that...

Mark

 

[JZ.]

Thanks for the tips guys...I will have to check on which way the guide is oriented...I'm pretty sure that the small end goes up towards the upper head...at least that is what my memory says. By 500 hours, they have a significant groove worn in it.... Yes, the entire lower head has been taken apart and cleaned. I am cutting composites which aren't the most conductive materials in the world, so any repeatability issues, I contribute to that...

Mark

The wider opening of Guide C faces up towards the upper head. Hopefully you are able to get it figured out, that would be highly annoying to deal with.

 

[Luke.kerbey]

Hi all,

I’m having this same issue. Except I’m getting threading. Issues. I’ve noticed a groove in my guide C, can I rotate this or will I need to replace it?

Also, how can it be removed from the assembly that screws up from underneath? I can take the brass turned part out that holds an Oring but can’t remove guide C. I don’t want to force anything.

 

[JZ.]

You can rotate them, are you in the bottom head?
If you are, once you take the nozzle cover plate off, take the guide block off and guide C should be right there in the bottom of the guide block. Maybe different than mine though.

 

[Luke.kerbey]

You can rotate them, are you in the bottom head?
If you are, once you take the nozzle cover plate off, take the guide block off and guide C should be right there in the bottom of the guide block. Maybe different than mine though.

Yes, sounds the same as mine. There is a grub screw holding the brass whistle shaped thing in that sun assembly but I can’t for the life remember how to remove guide C. I don’t want to force anything apart.

How is it removed?

 

[JZ.]

I'm not certain, and my machine is running so I can't double check, but I think once you take the guide block off you should be able to use a pin or something similar to push it out of the bottom, kinda like you do with the upper head guide C.