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Eliminating Stalls on Injection Machines

Eliminating Stalls on Injection Machines

Injection Application Story

Cleveland Machine and Tool, a US based manufacturing company specializing in providing unique sheet metal and investment casting solutions to a wide variety of customers, was looking to upgrade to the linear motion assembly on their wax injection system. The initial bearing assembly caused major production issues related to time consuming assembly which impacted their labor costs, and the vertical motion lacked smoothness at times, if not properly lubricated.

The wax injection machine horizontal functions uses a pressure switch designed to trigger the injection cycle. The installed linear bearing assembly had to adjust the 300 lbs. system vertically and horizontally; however the strain of the load caused the original linear motion assembly to put extra load on the system and pre-maturely trigger the pressure switch. This resulted in significant manufacturing time which translates into dollars. Cleveland Machine and Tool acted quickly, seeking a cost-efficient motion control solution to solve their assembly and maintenance issue.

Components:

Hevi-Rail, Linear Plain Bearing Pillow Blocks

Retrofit or OEM:

Retrofit

Problem:

An installed linear bearing assembly had to adjust a 300 lbs system vertically and horizontally. the strain of the load caused the original linear motion assembly to put extra load on the system and pre-maturely shutoff.

Solution:

 Hevi-Rail bearings are designed to provide medium-accuracy linear guidance under high radial or axial loads. They effectively disperse loads throughout the bearing to handle up to 60 tons.

The PBC Linear solution

PBC Linear engineers recommended their Hevi-Rail® heavy duty linear bearing system to support the 300 lbs. of load on the wax injection system. Hevi-Rail bearings are designed to provide medium-accuracy linear guidance under high radial or axial loads. Composed of case hardened steel, Hevi-Rail bearings effectively disperse loads throughout the bearing to handle up to 60 tons! This made Hevi-Rail a very applicable and easily integrating solution for vertical adjustment of the wax injection system.

For smooth, low-maintenance and accurate adjustment along the horizontal axis, PBC Linear designed a Simplicity® pillow block support rail assembly. Simplicity technology uses a proprietary self-lubricating liner and does not require additional grease or oil. Simplicity products also handle 20x the load of the traditional ball bearing design without any spalling or other damage to the shaft or bearing. The optimized linear slide assembly from PBC Linear allowed for re-positioning and adjustment of the system for different injection molds.

Results / ROI

The new solution worked great. Assembly time is reduced significantly and the movements are much smoother. The wax injection system no longer triggered early and could easily be adjusted to different customers’ mold sizes. Cleveland Machine and Tool thought the assembly worked so well they decided to implement the design throughout all of their investment casting machines.

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