Many machinists continue to waste time and energy blowing chips and cutting fluid off the workpiece and table with a compressed-air line. However, the Lang Clean.Tec fan — available exclusively from Aylesbury-based Thame Work-holding (www.thameworkholding.com) — provides an efficient and cost-effective solution to this housekeeping problem.

Available in three diameters — 160, 260 and 330mm — the fan provides efficient and simple cleaning and can be retrofitted to any enclosed horizontal or vertical machining centre. Manufactured from a robust glass-fibre compound with a steel centre core, the fan’s wear-resistant wings are held closed by tension springs and opened by the rotation of
the machine tool’s spindle.

A 20mm-diameter shank allows the fan to be mounted in a tool-holder and loaded into the machine’s automated tool-storage system. Designed for smaller machining centres and for the local cleaning of pocketed or slotted components, the 160mm-diameter fan operates between 6,000 and 12,000rev/min. Like the smaller fan, the 260mm-diameter unit offers through coolant to wash out drilled and threaded holes, as well as pockets and slots; it operates between 5,000 and 8,000rev/min.

The 330mm fan runs between 3,000 and 8,000rev/min and is suitable for clearing large areas and heavy chips. Sales director Maurice Day says that, in addition to saving time and costly compressed air during three-axis machining, the Clean.Tec fan is proving popular with precision engineering businesses adopting five-axis machining and automated raw-material loading/unloading.

“The complexity of multi-axis machining means there are often swarf traps on the component and work-holding that coolant alone cannot flush out. The fan ensures that the swarf is evacuated, so the cutting tool does not re-machine the chips. For automated loading and unloading, which is often associated with ‘lights out’ operation, cleanliness is vital. Unmanaged swarf will fall and obstruct the clamping of the automation system, causing production to stop.”