Ways to reduce abrasive utilisation

Abrasive machining is a manufacturing process where a material is removed from a workpiece using a multitude of small abrasive particles. Common examples include grinding, honing, and polishing. Abrasive processes are usually expensive, but capable of tighter tolerances and better surface finish than other manufacturing processes. The cost of abrasives has recently skyrocketed and poses a huge problem for many companies in the industry. Even worse is that the supply and demand of these products cause prices to increase and make them more difficult to find. The high costs of abrasives are becoming hot topics in the airblast and peening industry. It is imperative to reduce the amount of abrasive utilised and maximise the effectiveness of each barrel. Tips Perform regular maintenance on machines. Preventative maintenance drastically reduces downtime and expense over time. Additionally, well maintained machines perform better and more efficiently, requiring less abrasive. When budgets are cut, typical maintenance is one of the first things to go. However, maintenance directly affects the amount of abrasive consumed. Spending 20 to 30 minutes to maintain a machine can increase efficiency by 20 percent. Businesses often use equipment inefficiently causing excess costs and damage. Product manufacturers should stress the importance of wheel blast maintenance education. Send machine operators to maintenance school, and ask the manufacturer of your machine about seminars and classes that will enlighten you to the ins and outs of your machine. Once a machine is set up for a specific consistency and texture of abrasive, switching to a different type can cause the machine to break down. Repeated recycling of abrasive can lessen its effectiveness. Not only is it not as aggressive with the product when being reused because of particle breakdown, but the different consistency will wear down the equipment parts, requiring more frequent and costly replacements. Invest in new technology. A standard barrel of abrasive contains four tons of products. The average "high user" of abrasive uses 15-20 barrels a week, and many contractors report using even more. However, by investing in some of the newer technology, abrasive will decrease up to 18 percent. Cut back Reducing abrasive consumption decreases direct part cost. It also decreases the amount of work required to empty the abrasive out of the machine''s tank and the cost of disposal. Using a smaller water/abrasive nozzle combination can reduce abrasive consumption dramatically. Fabricators generally cut with a 0.014-inch water nozzle and a 0.040-inch or 0.043-inch abrasive nozzle, using 1.2 to 2 pounds of abrasive per minute. Switching to a 0.010-inch water nozzle and 0.030-inch abrasive nozzle can reduce abrasive consumption to 0.75 to 0.9lbs. per minute. Most fabricators hesitate to change because a smaller water/abrasive nozzle combination results in fewer parts per hour. While this is true for cutting with a single head, two-head cutting with the smaller nozzle combination produces more parts per day at a lower abrasive cost per part. Not all parts are suitable for two-head cutting because of part size, but with a 5- by 10-ft. or larger table, most waterjet users find that the second head can be used most of the time. If you cut with the 0.014-inch/0.040-inch combination with one head at 20-inches per minute (IPM) and 2 lbs. per minute of abrasive, the 0.010- inch/0.030inch one-head setup would allow you to cut at 12 IPM and 1 lb/min of abrasive for similar quality. The cut speed is reduced by 40 percent, and the abrasive is reduced by 50 percent. When using two heads, effective cut speed is doubled to 24 IPM, and abrasive use is 2 lbs/min. Assuming abrasive costs $0.25/lb, the smaller nozzle combination results in an abrasive cost of $0.021/in [(1 lb./min., 12 IPM) = 0.083 lb./in .x $0.25/lb. = $0.Mercurial X Proximo