Do You Have Smoke and Mist Coming From Your Chip Conveyor?

Smoke and Oily Mist Comes Out of Everywhere

I have seen many instances where mist is coming from the chip conveyor. The chip conveyor removes recently generated scrap metal from the bottom of the CNC, pulling the metal chips up and out the side, dumping them into a chip barrel. These scrap metal chips are hot, oily and smoke as they are being removed. Smoke / oily mist rises and bellows out the top and side of the conveyor and into the air. The enclosed chip conveyor is acting like a chimney. In each case there was a mist collector mounted on the CNC. The problem is that the mist collector is not generating enough negative pressure inside the cabinet to prevent the mist from escaping out the conveyor. Most mist collectors are mounted on top of the CNC by the cutting head, this location makes sense because most of the mist is generated as the part is being machined, however not all the mist is captured.

Solution to Capture the Mist

The solution to this problem; either you need a larger mist collector mounted on the CNC which would create enough negative pressure inside the cabinet so that the mist doesn’t escape the CNC enclosure and the chip conveyor, or you need to add another suction point on the conveyor in order to capture the mist. This can be done by mounting an inlet collar right on the top of the chip conveyor. (See photo)

Your Stock Collector May be Undersized

The mist that comes from incorrectly sized mist collectors might be subtle, but slowly over the course of a few hours it will contribute to the pollution of the overall factory ambient air. Fixing these pollution points will greatly improve the air quality.