Regular inspection and maintenance of the brush tables on your laser, bender and turret punch will help avoid both quality and safety issues. The worn and dirty brush panels and tooling brushes will create scratching and other quality issues on your sheet metal. These worn panels can also lead to uneven work surfaces, calibration issues and even crashes that can be both dangerous and costly. The following suggestions will help you avoid these pitfalls.
- Set up a schedule for routine visual inspection of the brush work surface. You should be looking for “hot spots” on the brush like the ones below. The hot spots will most likely occur on loading surfaces and in areas near the punching or laser action. Some spots will be easily identifiable while others will require closer inspection. If you have a large turret or shear you might need to lock your machine out and climb on top for visual inspection. You should be looking for melted or matted tufts and missing tufts, in addition to excessive wear. Rubbing your hand across the brush surface is an easy way to quickly identify areas where the brush might be matted and, in some cases, melted. When replacing worn and damaged brush panels consider replacing adjacent panels as well to ensure a level working surface.
2. Clean the slag from the brush with magnetic rollers and compressed air as needed. Depending on the on the material you are running, the slag can build up quickly and cause scratching and safety issues. This maintenance should be scheduled at end of shift or shift change as regularly as possible
3. Inspect and replace tooling brush. This is a very simple and cost-effective way to minimize any scratching that occurs in the punching area.
4. Consider station die brush for unused die stations. These brushes bring the sheet up closer to the height of the forming die, in turn, allowing the sheet to move more freely through the punch press. This helps to reduce sheet marking. It also keeps slag from accumulating in an empty die cavity.
A regularly scheduled maintenance routine of your brush will keep quality and safety issues at bay. By taking action today your future self will thank you! For any questions or for ordering information please visit our web site at www.brushtables.com or call our offices at 1-800-691-8204.