Cutting Machine Repair, Inc.
Specializing in Waterjet, Plasma, CNC and Servo Upgrades, Machine Repairs
Waterjet Issues
These are some waterjet issues we have run across. Some were preventable, some were not, and some should have been repaired way sooner than they were.
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Customer had electrician do some wiring in the control cabinet and they had BIG screw drivers. They had no business changing wires on the motor starter but tore it up big time and broke the terninal. The wire went to the bypass contactor to run all voltage around the soft start after the motor was up to speed. Customer had an issue with his pump stopping at random. The soft start was over heating since it was not bypassing voltage. I was able to repair the board instead of having to replace the soft start. Saved the customer $1500-$2000. Preventable!
This is the end support for a Flow WMC Ballscrew. All four bolts were completely backed out and the other end was half way backed out. Customer complaint was out of tolerance circles and an intermittant bang on one side of machine when running a rapid speed. Pulled the bellows back and pushed on end truck and noticed the entire ballscrew moved. Found the loose ends, tightened all bolts and re-calibrated squareness and cutting head. The machine had to have come like this from the factory. Preventable!
Motor coupling from a Flow 50iS Intensifier pump. Customer complained of noise. Pulled it apart and all fingers broken off and insert was destroyed. Not preventable, this does happen. Customer did ask if they could still run the machine like this. Told him he was lucky it was running at all. NO YOU CANNOT RUN LIKE THIS!!
Ceramic plungers from a Flow Hyplex pump. These are not extremely bad but should never be put back into the pump. Preventable. This customer just ran the pump too long with out calling me in for maintainance. Now it cost him 3 plungers, 3 seal carriers, 3 sets of seals, plus normal upgrade kit. Opted to do a major rebuild. Always do recommended maintainance on your pump at the scheduled number of hours!
This was more of a nuisance than anything. They tried to remove the plate skeleton with the parts still in it, while lifting, the plate shifted and parts and plate slid off of the forklift destroying all of the slats in the catcher tank. Spent a couple of hours fishing out heavy parts, pulling out slat pieces and installing new slats. Preventable
Pump was running hot and sometimes overheating. They had reduced cooling water flow. Inspected the heat exchanger and found this. Running city water or well water can cause the heat exchanger to fill up with crud. Preventable, yes if you run a closed loop chiller with good water and glycol.
Complaint: Machine stopped moving. Right side was bound up and giving servo errors. Pulled back the covers and found a rat's nest (top left). The rat left a piece of paper on the gear rack and it got caught up in the roller pinion and jammed the machine. Took 45 minutes using a small pick to remove all of the debris out of the roller pinion. Two days later the same thing happened and the rat had rebuilt the nest. Customer fixed it themselves and put out rat poison to kill the rat. Preventable, always have a good externimator.
The "Former" operator poured a bucket of soapy water solution into the catcher tank. They had clean parts for a few days. Preventable.
