Rubber roll-up way cover; Reliable Way to Patch?

I googled and googled but didn't see a machine way cover specific way to fix these.

Kitamura HX400IF with reinforced rubber way covers for x

We were doing a fair bit of dry high speed machining and the air blast and washdown coolants did not do a fair enough job to keep the chips from piling up near the operator door. They piled up in the corner where the rollup waycover retracts into, and ended up wearing a 3" tall "tear" in the bottom of the way cover in the middle of its travel. The tear is up/down, perpindicular to the x axis. It can't be sewn because while I call it a tear, there's some missing material in it, about 3/8" wide gap at the bottom.

There's also wear in the rubber surface where you can see the reinforcing material/cloth/whatever you call it. about 6" long total.

The cover is in great condition otherwise and a quote from Kitamura was awfully high.

we're currently running the machine as-is and only have a bit of coolant splashing through in that area that we can deal with, but it needs to be fixed.




So is there a patch that anyone has used that has worked well? I'm thinking of thin rubber + rubber cement or some other glue/bonding agent. Thin like bike tube thickness. Will anything be reliable winding up at full rapids going through the chip wiper on the roll side? (rapids are 1900ipm)

I don't have experience with your machine but have repaired similar roll-up covers in other machines. I took apart the cover and replaced the entire fabric with something like this.

McMaster-Carr

I never thought to do a patch job. I'd be afraid that it wouldn't hold up to the repeated rapid moves- especially at those ipm.

I don't know if that item I linked is the exact stuff I used. I do know it was from McMaster and has held up for many years.

Long time ago, fixed a rubber/canvas cover with an old tire tube and some weatherstrip adhesive. Had to clean and scuff up both surfaces, but it worked for a while.

wmpy said:

I don't have experience with your machine but have repaired similar roll-up covers in other machines. I took apart the cover and replaced the entire fabric with something like this.

McMaster-Carr

I never thought to do a patch job. I'd be afraid that it wouldn't hold up to the repeated rapid moves- especially at those ipm.

I don't know if that item I linked is the exact stuff I used. I do know it was from McMaster and has held up for many years.

Click to expand...

I didn't come across that specific one. I had come across a similar one: McMaster-Carr

Problem with the one that I found was the width is only 48 inches. The way cover is approximately 51 or 52" tall, and about 42" long or so.

But the one you linked is 60 inch width, which would be perfect. And the price is cheaper.

Does anyone else know if the fiberglass/silicone holds up to this kind of use? the rolls are relatively small diameter. Or would I need nylon/neoprene?

I'm also not sure how easy the one I have is to rebuild. I'm imagining taking it apart wrong and the spring preload goes.

beege said:

Long time ago, fixed a rubber/canvas cover with an old tire tube and some weatherstrip adhesive. Had to clean and scuff up both surfaces, but it worked for a while.

Click to expand...

I'm considering doing this along the whole bottom edge now, because I'm worried the wiper will hit it. But if I start the repair "behind" the wiper, it will never hit the edge of the repair, and hopefully it won't start to peel as a result.

Although now that I think about it, I wonder if I can do that because I'd be doubling the thickness of the material, and so when it rolls up, it won't be an even roll up and the cover might start to be "ripple-y" (for lack of a better term)

I glued some rubberized fabric to a sheetmetal rollup shield with Pliobond. Half dozen years later, it's still holding.

You might consider thin shimstock for a patch.

dandrummerman21 said:

I didn't come across that specific one. I had come across a similar one: McMaster-Carr

Problem with the one that I found was the width is only 48 inches. The way cover is approximately 51 or 52" tall, and about 42" long or so.

But the one you linked is 60 inch width, which would be perfect. And the price is cheaper.

Does anyone else know if the fiberglass/silicone holds up to this kind of use? the rolls are relatively small diameter. Or would I need nylon/neoprene?

I'm also not sure how easy the one I have is to rebuild. I'm imagining taking it apart wrong and the spring preload goes.

Click to expand...

The more I think about it, the more I think that one I linked is what worked well for me. The stuff I have is grey, and that fiberglass/silicone stuff is the only grey fabric I see in McMaster. It's definitely not the rubber sheet you linked to. You can see the woven pattern through the coating. Mine had probably lasted 10 years.

Disassembly of the entire roller assembly is a little tricky, but it's not horrible. You just have to make sure upon reassembly that you have a reasonable amount of spring tension along the full travel of the cover.