controller ventilation/cooling

claypatt · May 4, 2006

a lack of clean hardware has cost us about $7000 in repair parts so far this year, and a lot of it must be due to a radial arm-saw (under constant use) no less than 10 feet away. moving the controller has been ruled out, adding more fans/filters has already been done. i would appreciate some ideas on keeping that thing cool and clean.

as far as cooling goes, i've had some thoughts about utilizing the 15hp turbine hold-down system's exhaust to blow moderately cool air through the controller. my concern would be exhaust damage to computer parts. it's an electric motor, and i can't really see how much damage that could do, but i don't want to risk it without some input.

thanks
clay

Calzone · May 5, 2006

Have you considered the cost of relocating the saw? It would be the first thing I'd do.

E-Stop · May 5, 2006

Have you considered a cabinet cooler? The type that runs on compressed air. Very effective and relativly inexpensive.

http://www.exair.com/cabinetcooler/cc_page.htm

RL · May 5, 2006

Exair is definitley the easiest, and most cost effective way to go. They have been around for over 20 years! First time I saw one was during a service call at Caterlillar in East Peoria, IL in 1984! Make sure our cabinet door seals are good too, as this unit will create a positive pressure in the cabinet.

ARB · May 5, 2006

We also use Exair coolers. Simple and effective

gar · May 5, 2006

060505-1422 EST USA

claypatt:

You want a totally sealed cabinet, NEMA12, a large internal to external aluminum heat sink, an internal fan, and maybe an external fan. Maybe the heat sink could cover most of the cabinet door. On 1993 machines this is what HAAS did. Now they just use filters, not good.

.

JRIowa · May 5, 2006

Clay,
Do you know that the equipment is overheating? Go to one of the home improvement stores and get a remote reading thermometer. I paid $14 for one. Basically, electronics like the same temps that you do. If the inside of that cabinet is much over 100F, you are going to have failures.

I'm not much of a fan of the air powered cabinet coolers. I've seen too many studies on the costs of compressed air. Most of the stuff that we have to cool uses heat exchangers instead. The cabinet is actually sealed and the fans just circulate.
JR

RL · May 5, 2006

I agree with checking the temerature of the cabinet.

I have also seen people that have added a solenoid to the power on/off to shut the air off to the unit when the control is off.

I don't believe though he is having a heat problem as much as he is with needing "clean" air. Again the Exair unit will provide both, a postitive pressure, and cool clean air.

JRIowa · May 6, 2006

I just want to emphasize the cost of an air vortex unit. A small cabinet cooler takes about 15 SCFM to operate and a large one can take up to 60 SCFM. 60 SCFM costs about $1.00 per hour to produce just in energy with a 90 PSI system. Energy costs go up about 15% for each 10 PSI of system pressure.

So, if you run a larger unit at 100 PSI (like they recommend) your energy bill will go up about $2,400 per year. Then you have the wear on your compressor to contend with.

We did these calculations several years ago and with energy prices being higher, they are probably low. The calculations were all done for our installations which are 440-3 phase and compressor sizes of 50hp and over. Single phase power and smaller compressors will be higher.

Compressed air is not cheap!
JR

Thermo1 · May 6, 2006

JR,
I agree, compressed air is much more expensive than people think. It takes something like 0.2 hp to compress 1 scfm of air. Motors are not much more than 95% efficient, so the total power is about 0.15 kWhr per SCFM. At $0.10 per kwhr, that is only $0.015 per SCFM, or about $$0.90 per hour for 60 SCFM, which is just about what your study showed.

The other problem is that the air out of the vortex cooler is only as clean as the air going in. If your air system is wet, or contains a lot of oil, the air out of the vortex cooler will be wet, and will have oil.

Thermo1

metlmunchr · May 7, 2006

What about using one of the control cabinet type A/C units? 3 of my lathes have them, and the cabinets and control components are spotless after 25 years of use. Mine are made by Matsu****a Electric which is the parent of Panasonic IIRC. Never have checked the amperage but I'm sure they're much more energy efficient than a vortex tube, and the air is dry as well as being cool.

Added....Wow! Didn't know the dirty word filter would drag 4 letters right out of the middle of a legitimate name

gar · May 7, 2006

060507-0852 EST USA

If the electronics in the cabinet are well designed, and you have circulated air (meaning no hot spots), then an inside cabinet air temperature of 130 deg F. should be a safe level. Most plastic ICs are rated 70 deg C. which is 158 deg F.

.

motion guru · May 7, 2006

I would advocate moving the air around within the cabinet with a small fan.

I would also make sure that any ventilation fan that you have pressurizes the cabinet rather than blows air out of the cabinet.

Hot spots are what is killing the controller boards - if they have chassis covers over the boards, see if they can be removed to let some of the heat out.

A laser pointed infrared temp gun is also a good diagnostic tool in figuring out where the heat is coming from.

I noted that you are in Alberta - and it looks as though your heat problems have been in the winter . . . sounds like hot spots to me.

3t3d · May 7, 2006

If the electronics in the cabinet are well designed, and you have circulated air (meaning no hot spots), then an inside cabinet air temperature of 130 deg F. should be a safe level. Most plastic ICs are rated 70 deg C. which is 158 deg F.

Although the electronics is -Rated- for that temperature, for every 10 degrees increase in operating temperature, the life expectancy is halved.
That is what they beat into us repeatedly, in a former life.
Pete

claypatt · May 11, 2006

motion guru: yeah, medicine hat no less. if you don't like the temperature, just wait ten minutes!

Thermo1: I have attached a dryer to my air compressor and drain the tank 2 times per day (or as needed), I try to keep 150 PSI on it constantly. If you're good on this subject, a problem has come about with the tool changer and I believe it's a result of air pressure. The most commonly used tool refuses to let go during the auto tool change, so you can imagine the chaos. The controller assumes it let go of T4 and reaches for T1, all hell breaks loose and we have tools spinning against eachother. weird! a $300 purchase every time this happens.

to the rest of you guys, please provide me with some more information or URLs on Exair.

The radial armsaw has been considered (and possibly replaced by an outdoor compound mitre-saw). Changes should happen within a month.

The parts overheating are mainly amplifiers for each axis, and the most replaced is the motorcard for the z-axis. Other parts failing are the motors themselves, which I believe may be a result of bad amps or overwear.

RL · May 11, 2006

http://www.exair.com/

shiapeng123 · Sep 25, 2019

we specialized in controller ventilation cooling with our high performance heat sink

g-coder05 · Sep 26, 2019

shiapeng123 said:
we specialized in controller ventilation cooling with our high performance heat sink

Who gives a shit? Just more Chinese junk to throw away.

Guest · Sep 26, 2019

Go away you spamming piece of trash that bumped a 13 year old thread.

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