Mori horizontal spindle problems

[cullipj]

Has anyone had spindle issues with their SH40 or SH 400 horizontals. we have two of them and have replaced both spindles. After 8 months one of them has gone bad again. Is this a characteristic of this machine? We have not crashed either one of them.

[jaherrera3499]

What are the max RPM's for the spindle? I have seen when a 20,000rpm spindle geats rebuilt, it does not always get rebuilt right due to the hydraulic booster.
Need to make sure a new spindle gets run in correctly.

[cullipj]

My spindle is a 12000 rpm spindle. We had Mori rebuild the spindle and install so that all would be right. They are saying the last spindle failed due to contamination, but we don't know how that could be. any ideas?

[JoBwan]

Originally Posted by cullipj Has anyone had spindle issues with their SH40 or SH 400 horizontals. we have two of them and have replaced both spindles. After 8 months one of them has gone bad again. Is this a characteristic of this machine? We have not crashed either one of them.

cullipj,
8 months?? Shouldn't it be covered under warranty? I would like to see what you find out. Good Luck!!

[cullipj]

right now they are saying that it is not covered. they are saying that the bearing are contaminated with dirt. My issue is that they installed it and I would like to know where the contamination came from. Back to the original question is that does anyone know if spindle life is a widespread problem with this model of Mori's?

[jaherrera3499]

I've been working for the Mori distributor for 4 years now, and have only replaced one horizontal spindle, on a SH-63. I have done the 20,000rpm one on a SV-500(Vertical).
The only way dirt gets into those bearings is if your oilers have the dirt in them. If I remember right, those have an oil over air distribution system. Need to see if the tanks are clean.

[cullipj]

After reading the actual report is was not oil, but coolant and particulate contamination. How would coolant get into the bearings.

[underthetire]

VERY widespread problem. I've done at least a dozen. Ways to prevent this, iv'e found.

High pressure coolant.. the brass din style coolant plungers with the rubber seal on front of the spindle. People don't pay enough attention to those. THEY NEED TO BE REPLACED if they are leaking. No ifs ands or buts about it.

Turn up the oiling cycle VERY slightly for the air mist. There is a small vent hole at the bottom of the spindle. Tape a piece of klenex under this hole and run the spindle for 15 minutes at about 1K. Remove the klenex and see if it has oil on it. No oil, bad JUJU.

Run the spindle for at least 30 seconds after high pressure coolant to help purge the labrynth.

Check your oil cooler and change the fluid AND CLEAN the filter. You don't always notice a problem with these cause there on the back side of the machine.


And my number one reason- shops too lazy to loctite the retention knobs in. In the case of high pressure coolant, coolant will run back up and seep past the drawbar. This will usually only take out the rear bearing and sieze the drawbar.

I installed the very first SH40 in the us btw. I was there through all the SH series.

[underthetire]

My post was not meant to scare anyone from the Mori's. There is a reason there are probably 20 to 1 posts here mori VS other machines. I was a service/application engineer locally for twenty years. First choice of machines for me is always Mori, followed very closely with Okuma. I've worked on brands few have ever even heard of and other "popular" machines.

It's always about the quality of the service no matter what brand.

[cullipj]

Thanks for the input on the coolant. My problem is that we don't use the high pressure coolant-not even hooked up.My next question would be where could the coolant be coming from to contaminate the bearings. According to Mori it was the front bearings that went bad.

thanks

[underthetire]

1 Check oil/air with the method I described with the klenex. No air/oil mist=coolant in the spindle. 2 Check the oil cooler, spindle gets hot during running, then cools off and sucks coolant in. Only 2 ways I know of.

[cullipj]

thanks, I will check those things. Mori says that the coolant is entering through the labrynth. the suggestion is that we are running tools to short allowing the coolant to flood around the spindle and into the labrynth area. They suggest running tool holders 2" longer. I don't see how that will really help. does this seem to be feasible?