During a recent visit with our Hungarian Distributor, I had the opportunity to take a look at an application using some EXAIR Adjustable Spot Coolers and Mini Coolers. The company manufactures cataract lenses and is using the coolers in a dry machining application. The previous process involved using a liquid coolant which caused a washing operation to remove the contaminants before the lenses could move on to the next step of the process. This was not only time consuming, but the solution they needed to use as a coolant was very expensive due to strict regulations that they had to adhere to.

The lenses are set up on a lathe which are precisely cut. The Adjustable Spot Coolers were positioned with the cold airflow just at the point of cutting to keep the temperature at a specific point. If the lenses get too hot, the material becomes less rigid and begins to warp. When this happens, the lens cannot be reworked and must be scrapped. Immediately after coming off of the lathe, an inspector places the lens under a microscope for inspection. At this point, a Mini Cooler is installed to ensure that the temperature of the lens stays cold. If the lens passes inspection, it is immediately placed in a small freezer next to the operator. Temperature probes are in place at several points during the process to ensure that they do not go above the specified temperature.

By implementing a solution with the Adjustable Spot Cooler, this customer was able to boost productivity by removing a cleaning step from the process and also reduce costs by eliminating the need for the costly coolant solution that was required. If you’d like to replace messy coolant systems in your machining operation with a clean compressed air solution, give us a call. An Application Engineer will be happy to look at your process and recommend the most suitable solution.

Tyler Daniel
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD