R&D Fridays!
Today we are testing out a tidy, closed-loop, water-cooling option designed for cooling water-cooled spindles.
This design uses a large radiator and 2 x 120mm fans to cool the fluid running from the spindle and then recycling the cooled fluid back into the spindle.
We are using one of our Metal Storm Z axis backing plates for this experiment as we are exploring the idea of offering the Metal Storm with a water-cooled option.
The reason we are working on a solution like this is because there can be quite a few caveats to having a water cooling system. Some of these issues include; water leaks, mould in pipework and air-lock.
By having a closed loop setup with shorter piping, it requires very little fluid to do it's job and specialized mixtures can be added to reduce the risk of any mould development in the system.
After running this spindle for 2 hours continuously at 24K RPM it stays steady ~2°c higher than ambient temperature.
In this video, we have turned OFF our radiator and fan solution for ~2 minutes and observed a 9°c jump in temp of the spindle. After turning the system back on, it came back to normal operating temp within ~90 seconds.
We are very happy with these results so far and hopefully very soon, these cooling systems will be available as a bundle on our website so you can easily and effectively cool your own spindle!