FEATURE MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT
FLEXIBLE CYLINDER HONE proves its worth for field repairs
A flexible cylinder hone from Brush Research Manufacturing allows industrial equipment manufacturers to salvage damaged machinery, saving thousands on replacement parts
W
hether for smoothing out rough areas and high points, deburring,
edge blending, cross hatching or removing cut, torn or folded metal - a flexible cylinder hone can be an indispensible tool for field repairs. Using this relatively inexpensive tool, parts such as carbide bushings, bore sleeves, hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders and other cylindrical cavities can be resurfaced using a standard drill. For two industrial equipment manufacturers it was precisely this type of field repair work that allowed them to salvage equipment that was damaged and save their customer tens of thousands of dollars in replacement parts.
SCARRED VALVE HOUSINGS A flexible cylinder hone saved food processor Elmar more than £19,000 after unexpected damage to valve housings was caused prior to production. The company designs and manufactures filling machines for the food, beverage, petrochemical, personal care and pharmaceutical industries in a variety of models for filling liquids, high viscosity and solid particulates into plastic, glass, composite or metal containers. The rotary piston models have a large, rotating bowl for product with 6 to 72 filling stations, each built with a valve housing and rotary valve that dispenses a metered quantity of product. The tolerance between valve and housing must be within 1/1000th of an inch. It was this type of machine: a 45-station piston filler that Elmar sold to a customer for apple sauce and other food products. The food processor had recently taken
delivery of the new equipment. However, as construction continued in the facility one floor above a small amount of concrete and metal shavings had fallen into the filling bowl. When the equipment was started the particles and chips moved from the rotating bowl into the rotary valves, scarring the housings and damaging the valve plugs. The damage was such that each of the 45 valve housings and plugs had to be replaced at an estimated cost of nearly £40,000. “When you have a capital improvement project and the customer is looking at an
18 MAY 2015 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT
with a handheld electric drill. Ideal for field applications, it is self-aligning and self-compensating for wear which facilitates close-tolerance finishing work. To assist in the repair Dahlquist travelled to the customer’s site with several 2.25” Flex-Hones costing less than £130.00. In just over 4 hours he honed each of the 45 housings to the appropriate specifications. To achieve the tolerance required between valve and housing he used a dial bore gauge. “With the Flex-Hone, drill and a drill
holder we could rework each of the valve housings on the machine by hand,” says Dahlquist. “We were able to smooth out all the high points and insert new valves.
expensive bill for replacement parts before production even begins they want a quick solution that is cost effective,” says Thomas Dahlquist, special projects manager for Elmar. Unfortunately, the valve plugs were
damaged beyond repair. However, by honing each cylinder to remove any raised lips or high points and then inserting new valve plugs the customer could save half the cost. The company was familiar with cylinder
hones, having used them in the manufacturing of the valve bodies. In the past they had used the Flex-Hone from Brush Research Manufacturing, specifically in the field to hone out undersized or out-of-tolerance cylinders. A highly specialised abrasive tool, it is
characterised by small, abrasive globules that are permanently mounted to flexible filaments. A flexible, low cost tool, versatile and easy-to-use, the cylinder hone can deburr and clean out passages or provide IDs with a super-smooth plateau finish free of cut, torn and folded metal. It can be used for edge blending, plateau honing, polishing and chamfer operations. The Flex-Hone can be used in automated production equipment and
Flex-Hone can be used in automated production equipment and with a handheld electric drill
POORLY MACHINED CAVITIES For Vektek, a manufacturer of hydraulic and pneumatic clamping systems, improperly machined cavities from an overseas third party not only impacted the performance of the product but created a potential safety issue. Vektek must rely on their customers to ensure that the cylindrical product they supply is installed into a cavity with a proper surface finish or it will not seal and function properly. The consequence of a leaking cylinder
could be very serious since these devices hold workpieces stationary on machining fixtures. If the oil pressure in the cylinders drops due to leakage the grip would fail, requiring the machine to be shut down. This became a real issue when Vektek had problems with a major heavy equipment manufacturer customer in China that was not machining a cavity suitable for installation. Vektek advised technicians to use the Flex-Hone tool to properly surface finish the cylinder cavities so that the sealing problem would be eliminated. Vektek has for many years specifically recommended Flex-Hone in its product catalogue and data sheets; 300 cavities were honed and 299 of them were saved and polished exactly to specification. One cavity was slightly out of spec but provided an adequate seal.
Brush Research Manufacturing T: +1 (323) 261-2193
www.brushresearch.com
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