No Air Dryer

[BOBN1]

The Mistral B&s Cmm I Program Has No Air Dryer And It Has Not Had One For The 8 Months I Have Worked There. It Gets Loads Of Oil And Moisture On The Ways And I Have Informed My Boss That This Will Trash Out The Air Bearings Sooner Or Later And This Will Be A Very Expensive$$$$ Fix But I Cannot Seem To Convince Him That This Is A Major Problem. Can I Please Get Some Feedback From All Of You To Convince My Boss That An Air Dryer Is A Very Necessary Thing And Also Will An Air Dryer Take Care Of The Oil To Or Is An Oil Separater Needed To?? Thanks In Advance.

[c_bearden]

We have the same problem where I work. It sounds like we have the same boss as well.....
After having our machines re-hosed for the second time, they have seen the light......we are ordering the DevilBiss Air dryer this week.......:-)

Doberman

[T Miller]

I don't know how you would go about it to get a price list of what could go wrong - I know it would cost us 2,500 to get our air lines replaced.
And I think you should also have filters for oil and water before the dryer

[Don Meredith]

Brown & Sharpe is probably your best source in info on this problem. The spec sheet that came with the machine should state the quality requirements of compressed air.
One thing is certain: if oil and water continue to go through the lines and air bearings, you are looking at an expensive (and avoidable) repair. We got a quote from B&S to replace air lines and clean the air bearings on our Xcel 7-10-7 recently; $6k.
Air that is dry and free of oil is essential to the proper operation and long life of these machines.
Good luck convincing your ********* to do the right thing.

[Wes Cisco]

You can talk to a rock all day long. You can solicite experts to come and speak with the rock on your behalf. It will still be a dumb rock. If your employer can not see the wisdom of spending a few hundred to avoid having to spend thousands in repairs, his wallet will suffer. A last ditch attempt: with OEM spec sheet for your machine in hand, ask your boss if they would run one of the machine tools without ever replenishing the supply of way oil, so that after a period of time the thing locks up due to lack of lubrication. Running dirty air is just as dumb.

[Andrew Gardner]

Document everything by way of emails. When the time comes for new hoses and bearings, at least your covered. You tried to remedy the problem before it cost, but were not taked seriously. Sometimes, you have to let things break before they take notice.

[Jan d.]

This is a piece of lab equiment and it needs lab type clean air.

The air bearings have orphices that are no bigger than 0.010". If you do the math, you find that the smaller the orphice, many times the more stable the bearing and the bigger the workable "high" stiffness area. So if the vendors can reliably drill holes that are smaller, they will! I have seen air bearings with inserted rubys that have a 0.004" hole EDM'ed through them! It takes NOTHING to clog those up.

I am not sure what the orphice size is on the Mistral, but rest assured, it will be very close to around 0.010". It may have several. If only 1 clogs up, the bearing is toast and you start to grind down your aluminum guide rail!

An air dryer, GOOD filters (not the crappy cheap once they supply with these machines) and a large pressure vessel (to trap the junk before it gets into your machine) with a junk-release valve on the bottom (to evacuate the trapped water and oil and whatever may be in the line on the bottom of the tank) costs peanuts compared to a ruined guideway.

If they take their equipment serious, they MUST take these basic precautions.


Jan.

[Hilton Roberts]

The Mistral B&s Cmm I Program Has No Air Dryer And It Has Not Had One For The 8 Months I Have Worked There. It Gets Loads Of Oil And Moisture On The Ways And I Have Informed My Boss That This Will Trash Out The Air Bearings Sooner Or Later And This Will Be A Very Expensive$$$$ Fix But I Cannot Seem To Convince Him That This Is A Major Problem. Can I Please Get Some Feedback From All Of You To Convince My Boss That An Air Dryer Is A Very Necessary Thing And Also Will An Air Dryer Take Care Of The Oil To Or Is An Oil Separater Needed To?? Thanks In Advance.

Probably a better question to ask yourself is whether or not you want to continue to work there. Sad as that may be, the indications are the owner has the cmm only because one or more of his customers demanded to see a cmm report on a part. If that is the reason he bought the thing in the first place, he will not be interested in spending more money on it. That means for all practical purposes, he is not going to want to hear ANY bad news about parts you produce nor will he be interested in improving processes. Sounds to me like you are in a holding pattern until you find another job. I do not think I would wait too long.........

Hilton

[dwade]

Kaeser (sp?) membrane dryers are about the best. Last one I bought thru a local distributer ran around $800.00.

[56flh]

You may want to add a coalescing filter in your air supply line. After having our CMM re-lined we updated the air dryer situation (small portable at the machine and two industrial units on our compressors) and added a coalescing filter of our own design in the supply line ahead of the local dryer.

[Ravenmaniac]

You may want to inform your "I know more then thou" representation of a boss that we recently had a mishap that trashed the bearings in our large Sheffield. The dryer for our machines (we have a few Mistrals also) is on the same line as the machine shop. Sadly, it gets worse. The dryer quit one weekend (just blew up) and immediately water mixed with oil began to run into the lines. However, because the way the building was constructed, the lines to the shop all had bends in them to act as temporary traps in case of such an event. However, no such bends were ever done to the lines leading into QC. Soooooo, all the goop and crud ran downhill as it may seem right into our first CMM on the line which was the Sheffeild. I cannot visually recreate the horror at what we saw when we came in Monday and saw all that crap oozing and bubbling out of airways along the ways and the travel paths of the bridge.....many...many...many thousands of dollars to tear down, clean, replace and then recalibrate the machine over a little thing such as an air dryer and some prebent tubing. If he's willing to buy you a new one, then hey....measure away.

[bw_bob]

we have had an air dryer since we installed the machines....to be without one is taking a huge chance

[Perry Fisher]

I'm running a Mistral here. We have an air dryer at the main compressor. Between the incoming supply and the machine I have a separator going into a dessicant dryer then into larger version of the B&S supplied filters.

You can't get your air too clean.

[Wes Cisco]

we have had an air dryer since we installed the machines....to be without one is taking a huge chance

I'm running a Mistral here. We have an air dryer at the main compressor. Between the incoming supply and the machine I have a separator going into a dessicant dryer then into larger version of the B&S supplied filters.

You can't get your air too clean.

Come stumble my mirth beaten worker
I'm Jezmund the family berzerker
I'm bought for the price of a flagon of rice
The wind buffs the cabin
You speak of your life
Or more willingly Locust the Lurker

Confuse what you can of the ending
And revise your despise so impending
'Cause I soak on the wrath
That you didn't quite mask
I'm getting it clearly through alternate paths
Or mixed in with the signal you're sending

But who can unlearn all the facts that I've learned
As I sat in their chairs and my synapses burned
And the torture of chalk dust collects on my tongue
Thoughts follow my vision and dance in the sun
All my vasoconstrictors they come slowly undone
Can't I live while I'm young?

But no peace for Jezmund tonight
I plug the distress tube up tight
And watch what I say as it flutters away
And all this emotion is kept harmless at bay
Not to educate somebody's fright


Who knows why I posted that? Anyone? Bwahahahahaha

[Robert Masters]

Wow.

Stupid is as stupid does.

They are called AIR BEARINGS for a reason. The liquids between your bearings and ways will almost certainly carry particulates that will eventually wear the ways, plus the additional drag and the he11 it's gotta be playing with the drive motors.

Is the owner a complete numbskull ?