Keeping your shop running smoothly: Slide maintenance tips & repair solutions

Slides are often found in machinery that runs eight or more hours a day, sometimes seven days a week. This ongoing use – combined with environmental factors such as dirt, machining chips, and condensation – can contribute to failure of the slide and therefore an inability to create quality components.

Gilman Precision in Grafton, Wis., offers repair services for these needs.

“Basically, there are two reasons why you would need a slide repaired: something breaks or the accuracy is off,” Gilman Engineering Supervisor Dale Blank says. “A slide will wear, the moving members will wear, and when you lose the accuracy, whether it’s tracking, height, or whatever – then you’re not making good parts.”

Proper lubrication is an essential factor in maintaining a slide, Blank explains. Using way oil and not grease for lubrication is an important distinction, because grease often brings contaminants that wear down component’s surfaces.

Lubrication can be done manually or electronically, depending on how often the slide is used. Machines used hours on end require daily applications from automatic lubrication systems. For machines used less regularly, manually lubing is sufficient at least once a week. The more the slide is used, the more lubrication required.

“Lack of lubrication is where we tend to see the most issues when a slide is sent in for repair,” states Robin Nierode, a machinist at Gilman Precision. “The retainers begin to rust, throwing off all accuracy, and eventually a part will break.”

An improperly maintained slide will begin to wear down. Contaminants will allow free movement, both horizontally and vertically, and the product will lose parallelism, repeatability, and ultimately productivity.

As a preventive measure to eliminate contaminant build up, customers will use way wipers or accordion covers, sometimes both, Nierode explains. Way wipers glide along as the slide moves vertically, pushing any and all contaminants out of the way. Accordion covers are essentially shields, expanding and contracting with the slide, leaving no room for contaminants to get in.

To guarantee high-precision, high-uptime machining, manufacturers should keep a close eye on slides, servicing them before damage occurs, and adding preventive equipment to limit problems in the future.

Gilman Precision
www.gilmanprecision.com