I am not a machinist. I have a degree in electromechanical engineering, but I have somehow been promoted to Quality Engineer for our metal shop. I track nonconformance data and our lathes have the most issues by far. The majority of problems are from chips getting between the rollers on the steady rests and the workpiece. Surface damage, nicks, dings, etc. Our main steady rests are made by SMW Autoblok. Our manufacturing engineer doesn't have any suggestions, our machine operators (not machinists) know there is a problem and are willing to try something, but aren't too motivated to look into it. My Google skills must be lacking because I have not been able to find a good way to keep the chips out of the rollers. I'm thinking maybe a wipe or brush. Our fabricator doesn't seem to keen on the idea of fabbing something up. Are there any accessories that I can purchase? Any creative or effective ideas that have worked for any of you? We can't use compressed air or blowers for safety concerns.
Can't use air, how about liquid? Flood coolant or something ELSE, added just for the purpose, even?
Dead-easy even in the dry for low and slow all-manual machining.
But you said "SMW" and that hints you may be trying to hit high-throughtput CNC productivity numbers, so this may not suit your environment...
Low and slow it helps to put a sheet metal or sheet plastic disk similar to a "ballerina skirt" around the work, cutting tool / chip SOURCE - side of the rest.
As with a debris deflector on a military helicopter turbine engine air intake, the spinning disk tends to deflect and block chips, bouncing them off, or spinning them off if wet with coolant.
Downside is the "skirt" has to be manually applied to, then removed from, each workpiece in turn.
I did say "throughput" could suffer?
Next-up is brush and "lip" type wipers (think section of elastomer as a flap with a curved contact edge or "looks-like windshield wiper blade") in between the rollers on the rest itself.
Not "flat" with a straight edge. That just traps and builds-up a logjam of chips.
Needs to be curved to fit the workpiece closely while ANGLED as-in snowplow blade so chips are ejected away from the rollers.
Page Two.
Don't run your rollers in direct contact with the work at all.
Slip a ring onto it, run the rollers against the wear-ring as you would with solid bronze tips that had no rollers.
Wear ring gets grotty, true to up. Eventually you replace it with a new one.
Extra work. Throughput again.
First thing mught be to try a coolant flush stream as diverter?