(4) WAY COVER DESIGN

Breakdowns can have a huge impact on your machine’s ROI – particularly for those costly repairs of components that have a known cycle life. The interior scissor mechanism that actuates the interlocking metal sections of telescopic way covers has a reputation as a root cause of failure. Whether through normal wear, chip build-up getting compacted between the interlocking joints, or user error with heavy items being dropped on way covers, a damaged cover can crash and implode the sheets amongst themselves. At typical repair costs of upwards of $5k - $15k per axis, so it is a significant cost that shop floor managers need to consider when reviewing a machine’s potential ROI.

For more reliable way covers, invest in machines with rolling and single-piece way covers. Unlike those with a telescoping action, these are designed with no joints and slide into the machine when retracted to eliminate failure points and access for chips. Also affecting the longevity of your way covers is their location below the cutting action. Is your spindle located directly over the way covers? Or are the chips being directed into a center chip removal trough? As an invested shop owner, exercise due diligence and proactively ask your machine tool builder what cost-saving design elements were implemented into the machine to save your business from future unexpected repair costs.

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