Tough lights shine in turbine blade machining

20 April 2007

RLC Callender, one of the UK’s leading turbine blade manufacturers, uses tough borosilicate glass tube lights from Waldmann Lighting.

RLC Callender, one of the UK’s leading turbine blade manufacturers, uses tough borosilicate glass tube lights from Waldmann Lighting to provide high-quality illumination for its machining operations.

With around 90 machine tools, including three, four and five-axis machining centres and multi-axis grinding machines, the company’s Accrington plant produces components such as titanium panels for wide chord fan blades for civil aircraft engines, as well as special blades and vanes for cold end applications.

Works Services Manager Tony Butterworth explains that it is vital to have good illumination inside the machine tool before, during and after the actual machining cycle. As he says, “First of all, good lighting is important when we are loading the parts into the machine in order to make sure that they are properly located. Once machining has started we need to be able to see the cutter on the job to make sure that there is no burning, tip wear or tip breakage. These are high-value parts and we certainly don’t want to scrap any. And once the part has been machined we want to be able to see to inspect it on the machine. Standard machine tool lighting as supplied by the manufacturers is rarely sufficient so we always install extra lighting in the machining enclosure. We have been doing this for quite a number of years but the fluorescent tube lights we were using only had a life of a few months because of the harsh conditions they were exposed to. With coolant constantly splashing onto the polycarbonate housing and repeated impacts from hot swarf the lights soon cracked and became discoloured.”

Waldmann Lighting was able to offer a tough and long-lasting alternative – with high-efficiency fluorescent lamps housed inside a watertight borosilicate glass tube. As Rodger Henderson of Waldmann Lighting explains, “We have a complete range of fluorescent tube and LED lights for all kinds of industrial applications, and the borosilicate glass units are ideal for use in the machining zone. When exposed to coolant and swarf, polycarbonate tends to crack, which causes leaks. The material also degrades with exposure to ultraviolet light so that the clear tube turns milky. Borosilicate glass tubes have proved to be a very durable and cost-effective alternative. As well as being available with borosilicate glass tubes our lights are sealed using special twist-off end caps that are easy to open, yet provide protection against moisture and dust ingress to IP67.”

Tony Butterworth says that since he started replacing the old lights with the new Waldmann units ten months ago there have been no failures and the lights are just as bright as when they were installed. “It is a real cost benefit. Although the initial outlay is slightly higher, I don’t have to replace them every few months. There is also a quality benefit because the illumination they are providing is better too. We have around 90 machine tools here, so rather than replace the lights all at once we are changing them over as the old ones fail. As you walk through the shop you can see the difference straight away – the old ones are dull and yellow and the new ones give a bright, white, sharp light.”

Waldmann Lighting offers 4000 different variants of tube lighting and can tailor the lighting system to provide exactly the right illumination for a specific machine tool with an off-the-shelf product.

Released By

Waldmann Lighting