Chip fans

[neurosis]

Any of you guys use chip fans?

https://www.redlinetools.com/itemdetail/RTF63

We're running a job that we really need one for.  Any suggestions?

[JParis]

We just use an empty tool holder and run the air thru spindle up & down while the tombstone rotates.

They tried a couple different ones and they broke

[neurosis]

They tried a couple different ones and they broke

Yea, I'm not sure if they are just gimmicky?  I've seen some people who say they use them a lot on horizontals. 

The job were running is about a 35" long track that is about 4" tall and rc55 so were high speed machining them for tool life.  We're getting amazing tool life but spending 20 minutes dealing with chips on every part. 

If I get a chance I'll take a photo next week.  Chip management on this job sucks the balls.

[YoDoug]

We run the Lang chip fans in our robot pallet loaded machines. The blades will shrink down an inch sometimes before they get rebuilt but rarely break. We tried the redline fan and it broke the blades of in a week. In those machines with the chip fans we have Caron Eng TMAC and spindle vibration sensors. We monitor spindle vibration while the chip fan is running and trigger an alarm if it gets too high. A missing blade running unattended over night would kill the spindle bearings.

[neurosis]

We run the Lang chip fans in our robot pallet loaded machines. The blades will shrink down an inch sometimes before they get rebuilt but rarely break. We tried the redline fan and it broke the blades of in a week. In those machines with the chip fans we have Caron Eng TMAC and spindle vibration sensors. We monitor spindle vibration while the chip fan is running and trigger an alarm if it gets too high. A missing blade running unattended over night would kill the spindle bearings.

Thanks for the info.

This wouldn't be running unattended at all and the cycle time on these parts are about 4 1/2 hours so it would only run twice a day. 

Do the lang have through coolant holes? 

[neurosis]

Tell me you didn't watch the video, by not telling me you didn't watch the video
Although I (customer) doesn't use that - just the fan....

Sorry newb, I didn't even see your post.  I popped in and saw the last post, which was from Yodoug.  It's been so slow here recently I didn't expect to see two responses in such a short period of time.   

I watched now and yea,  looks good.  We would definitely be using that to blow chips out of some holes.

[CNCAppsJames]

This is the one you want... they are proud of them, but... they work and don't break unless it coolies with something.

https://www.bigdaishowa.com/en/products/product-accessories/cleaners/cnc-chip-fan 

[neurosis]

This is the one you want... they are proud of them, but... they work and don't break unless it coolies with something.

https://www.bigdaishowa.com/en/products/product-accessories/cleaners/cnc-chip-fan

That thing looks pretty awesome but I don't think we could make a tool change with that one. 

[CNCAppsJames]

Set it as a "LARGE" tool...

[neurosis]

Set it as a "LARGE" tool...

that's what she said? 


I'll have to look, but I think that machine has a gap limit for tool diameter. 

It could be 6"?  I'll look in to it on Tuesday. 

We did some mods on that machine to keep chips from bouncing up in to the tool carousel.  It could be our fault.  Its been a while.

[MIL-TFP-41]

We use a bunch of these, both the Redline version and the Big Kaiser. The Big Kaiser is a good option, but I hate losing 3 spots in the magazine, especially on the machines where i am limited to 60 or 90 tools. (gotta be flagged as a large tool). The Lang and Redline are very similar. The Lang's we have had in the past, the shank was made from the same polymer material as the blades. The Redline shank is aluminum. We have had blades fail on both, and yes, it makes a hell of a racket when that happens. One thing we learned was to ramp the RPM's up slowly, not accelerate to 10,000 rpm right off the bat, so our program looks like this:

S1000 M3
G4 X.25
S2500
G4 X.25
S5000
G4 X.25
S7500
G4 X.25
S10000

Even with ramping up slow, I have seen the blades fail. So one of our daily inspection items is visually inspecting the fan.

Another option is the Haas version, I have purchased one (it was on a 50% off sale) and it is identical to the Redline version.

[RobertELee]

but spending 20 minutes dealing with chips on every part. 

If you're spending 20 minutes to clean chips off of a part I highly doubt a chip fan will do much. If you have high pressure through spindle coolant maybe try installing a whirliebird/turbo pressure washer nozzle into a tool holder and see what happens. They're like $20 and are pretty powerful.



Come to think of it, does anyone make these for machines?

***[Patent Pending]*** 

[YoDoug]

In all the years....we'd never had a lang break.
Only smash when it was low above the parts and someone hit "reset" stopping the spindle etc.
None have broken on their own accord....

Same here, never had one break from wear.

[JakeL]

Any of you guys use chip fans?

https://www.redlinetools.com/itemdetail/RTF63

We're running a job that we really need one for.  Any suggestions?

eMC thread about the same topic. I don't think there's much in that thread that hasn't already been said here.

https://www.emastercam.com/forums/topic/105783-chip-fan/#comment-1336908

[mkd]

eWC..Hmmm.
never heard of it