Cleaning tool magazines

REQUIREMENTS

When cleaning a machine tool, the tool magazine poses a particular challenge: it gets particularly heavily soiled, is only very hard to reach, and you can easily injure yourself on the sharp tools. Yet it is precisely the tool magazine that should be cleaned properly and regularly, because sticking from cooling lubricant or oils or chips causes damage to the tool holders and the handling systems.

The tool magazine is usually cleaned by hand with the help of rags and, if necessary, brake cleaner, with which heavy contamination is sprayed. That costs a lot of time and carries the risk that foreign substances are introduced into the cooling lubricant. In addition, there is the danger of injuring yourself while cleaning.

LOW-PRESSURE HOT-WATER CLEANING AS THE IDEAL ALTERNATIVE

The ph-cleantec units are ideally suited to cleaning the machine tool including the tool magazine. This is simply sprayed off with hot cooling lubricant or cutting oil. With the lances you effortlessly reach even the furthest corners.

YOUR BENEFITS

• Quality: Stuck-on cooling lubricant and chips or cutting oil are rinsed off gently by the high temperature and the low pressure, without damage and without major splash-back effects. Removed contamination is transported away without any problem, but no bearings are washed out, there is no damage to electrics, hoses or sensors, and no rust forms.
• Efficiency: With the lances, even the furthest corner of the tool magazine – chain magazine, pot magazine, disc magazine or side loader – can be reached effortlessly.
• Efficiency: Tools stay in the holder and are cleaned along with it.
• Time saving/costs: The saving in working time and downtime compared with manual cleaning is enormous. Even a tool magazine with 60 places is cleaned in a few minutes; customers regularly save 80–90% in working time and thus downtime.
• Medium/no foreign substances: The machine’s own cooling lubricant or cutting oil. Hence no dilution of the emulsion and no introduction of foreign substances. Cooling lubricant can be filled into the tank of the low-pressure hot-water unit or drawn directly from the tank of the machine tool.
• Occupational safety: The operator does not have to reach into the machine with their hands; hence no injuries.
• Environmental protection/resources: No chemicals, minimal resources (electricity)
• Economy: Low investment, low running costs, but high time saving

Tool magazine before and after cleaning

ECONOMY

• Experience shows that cleaning a whole machine tool takes 3–4 hours – with low-pressure hot-water cleaning, on the other hand, only 20–30 minutes.
• Even a tool magazine with 60 tools can be cleaned completely in a few minutes. This saves valuable working time, and production can continue for longer.
• At €25 full costs per working hour and €150–€250 less lost earnings for one hour of downtime, you easily reach (with monthly cleaning) savings of over €500 per month.
• With 10 machine tools, the investment in a hot-water cleaning unit thus pays for itself in 1–2 months.
• A tendency towards falling costs for servicing and maintenance, since faults such as leaks are found and remedied significantly more easily and quickly in clean machines.
• The risk of injuries, e.g. when cleaning the drive trains or the tool magazine, is minimised – this increases occupational safety and saves downtime and trouble.
• If you want to work out the economics for your site, go here to the amortisation calculator

DOWNLOAD

Cleaning tool magazines (PDF)