Oh! Clearly I didn’t read close enough that this was a second hand unit, my bad!
There is a machine shop local to me that handles the basket and wiper blade fab for a local glassblower that blows wfes for Eastman. If you run into a brick wall, I could reach out to them and see if they work with the fancy PTFE
I can understand that sort of damage on a stainless wiper, but wtf runs a seethru wiper to that point?!?
Operators who don’t think they are paid enough to care or report it
Or
People reluctant to spend money
also possible, though far less likely, that before a big long batch run, the blades were intact or only slightly worn; then, as the long run proceeds, the wipers were moving to fast to see it, only to be found after the batch was done and the blades were stopped.
again less likely given that photo, like that’s a LOT of wear, and in an interesting pattern. but i have seen a surprising amount of wear happen, from brand new to teeth nearly gone, in a single shift/batch run.
aligning and correcting one’s rotor/blade cage i found through trial and error to be one of the biggest contributors to blades wearing or not, second to an insufficient feed rate
Sounds to me like carbon wipers should be standard on everything.
Wow these wipers look rough, how much run time do you think these bad boys have on them?
wow! appreciate the share. this is the main reason why i prefer glass stills to SS, throughput is less sure but seeing what’s happening inside without having to disassemble is really, really valuable.
BIG YES 100%. i consider PTFE blades basically planned obsolescence and a way for mfgs to continue to make money off of us
I’ve found myself a pretty good deal on carbon wipers in 75% PTFE 25% Carbon
Modeled after this, but 100mm long instead of 500mm, with a 2mm bevel on each blade edge.
The MOQ is higher than I need.
Does anyone else want/need a set? Cyclo’s chinese manufacturer wants $350 USD for a set of virgin PTFE ones. I could land you 20x 100mm wipers for that price anywhere you want them shipped.
Why are these manufactured so short? Is it supposed to be more modular where you can just replace the blades that are bad? Once would think larger and fewer blades would be easier.
Yes.
Look at how POPE and VTA do it.
Allegedly mine should arrive this week. If there are spares after everyone gets the ones they’ve asked for I’ll post them here.
Here they are. There are a couple of extra sets. Who wants em? $350 USD shipped to you anywhere in North America.
Still available? Just got a Lab1st stainless unit and have no idea what the blades look like. Figure it’d be nice to go ahead and have those ready for when I tear it down.
Yup, I’ve got a couple of sets that are presently uncommitted.
Shoot me your email in a DM and we can go from there.
