IMTS Sneak Peek: Spindle Repair “Before & After”

At IMTS our Service department is going to be showing something very unusual. Visitors to our booth will get the chance to see two spindles that are pulled out of a CNC machine. The demonstration will be a “Before & After” look at a spindle that has sustained an “overload incident” (aka crash or bump) and is pretty much a mess. In the Before you’ll be able to clearly see the extent of the damage. Right next to this we’ll show an “After” demo so you can see what we’re capable of here in Service when we refurbish a spindle. You might be surprised to see the dramatic changes when we bring a spindle back to life.

The Before: Utter Destruction

Our Before spindle will be in pretty bad shape. It has recently been removed from a CNC machine, and it’s very dirty and grimy and you can see damage to the shaft and the runout in the spindle and the taper. This spindle is definitely not holding spec anymore. What we can also see is that the preventive maintenance for this machine might not be happening as it should be. We can note that the user might not be maintaining their coolant concentration level or replacing their consumables such as the rotary joint or the thru-spindle coolant pin.

RELATED: What to Do When You Crash, Bump or Goo

The After: Complete Transformation

Here at Okuma, my colleague Cam Duke and I have seen plenty of spindles come to us in this condition. The repair process involves disassembling, cleaning, and rebuilding the spindle, which takes about 32 hours. We also replace the shaft completely. The result is that we bring things into specification functionally for the customer, and cosmetically also.

After all this hands-on work the spindle goes through a bearing burn-in and field balancing process. The spindle actually runs for about 7-8 hours. This saves a day of installation for our customer because they can put the spindle in and they’re ready to run.

Through this entire process the customer is already up and running, because when we’ve received their damaged spindle we send them a working spindle right away as a part of our Mechanical Exchange program. After we’re finished refurbishing the damaged unit we put it back on the shelf for the next customer.

Don’t Forget Your Free Okuma Hat!

All of this should be very interesting to see, so definitely stop by at Okuma Booth S-8500. While you’re there, be sure to check out the Okuma CARE Service display, fill out a brief survey, and take home a FREE Okuma hat! This special edition hat features the classic Okuma logo plus an IMTS 2016 logo to commemorate this year’s show.

Ron Sanders is Group Leader Mechanical Exchange, Okuma America Corporation.