Chip Conveyer Cleaning Tips

Hinged belt conveyors are quite effective at quickly removing large quantities of machined metal from the working area of your lathe or machining center. Just like any part of your machine tool proper maintenance and cleaning keep it performing and reliable.

Often small chips and swarf fail to fall off the conveyor at the drop point and follow the conveyor around to the bottom side where they are washed off by coolant. Over time these chips and swarf will build up in the bottom of the conveyor and will potentially cause the following problems.

• Reduced coolant system capacity
• Chip conveyor coolant overflow
• More surface area for bacteria to grow
• Coolant rancidity

Most manufacturers recommend conveyors be cleaned on a daily basis. Follow these simple instructions to remove contaminates from your conveyors daily in under a minute.

Warning: chip conveyors contain a moving chain some models may start and stop without notice, this can pose a risk of personal injury or death. As stated below, only perform these operations when the main breaker powers completely off machine and conveyor.

1. Prior to morning startup of machine insure main breaker to machine is turned off and there is no external power source to the chip conveyor.
2. Crumple three full sheets of newspaper.
3. Load the crumpled paper evenly between the bottom side of the chain and conveyor frame.
4. Startup machine and operate normally.

Caution: After machine is powered on do not attempt to feed or stop newspaper from feeding into conveyor.

Tip: After newspaper is expelled from conveyor check chip bucket for lost tools and small parts that may have fallen below conveyor belt.

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Hartwig, Inc. accepts no liability for any problem or event effecting the machine as a result of anyone performing any of the above steps as detailed in the Hartwig, Inc. Tips & Tricks web page. The above information is provided as is and without guarantee as to its sound practice or proven methodology. Anyone who follows these steps does so at their own risk, or the risk of the machine owner. This offering of information does not in any manner modify the relationship between the machine owner and any machine operator.