POST DATE Jan 23, 2014

We are very pleased to introduce guest blogger, Dean Maier from Industrial Autolube International. Dean Maier has been in the automated lubrication business for 25 years, with 85% of that time spent in forestry applications. We are delighted to have his insight with his latest blog “Is lots of water in a saw guide system a good thing?"

The old saying “if a little is good, more has to be better” doesn’t hold a lot of water. Water is one of those mediums that given enough velocity, it becomes very abrasive, as seen in a water jet. A water jet is piece of equipment that uses water to cut steel just as a torch or milling machine does. Now think about the water supplied to a set of guides in a saw application; supplied to cool saws spinning as much as 4000 rpm.

Where does that water go? It is usually accelerated to extremely high speed and literally spit out on the inside of the sawbox. As this water is expelled at high velocity it eventually damages everything it comes into contact with. I never knew how much this was the case until I saw the inside of one the gangs we were installing our saw guide lubrication system on.

The volume of water supplied to the guide pack for 12 saws was over 5 gallons per minute. You can see from the picture that the main area where the cants are run through has the highest wear. This is primarily because the guides in that area see the most wear and allow the most water to escape to the saws.

A lot of the guide lubrication systems use a mixture of water, air and oil to cool and lubricate the saws and the guides. We have found that water, being 800 times more dense than air will cool better than air. If you keep the pocket full of water only, you get better cooling with less water flow. Less water means less abrasive wear on the guides and other components. We have also found that using smaller diameter water lines keeps the turbulence high in the line and allows for better mixing of the oil in the water without the need for air.

There are multiple reasons for guide life, water and oil volumes consumption and the ongoing costs associated with the operation of any cutting equipment. If you break it down, those costs all have a root cause that can be identified and in a lot of cases rectified. There is another old saying we do take seriously, “the devil is in the details”. We pride ourselves in thinking outside the box and dealing with those devilish details.

Industrial Autolube International Inc. was formed in January of 2006 by Dean Maier, then 2 years later joined by Wayne Martinson, combining over 45 years experience between them in the lubrication and lubricants industry.

Author: Dean Maier

Industrial Autolube International Inc.

Deanm@autolube.ca

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