Why do we need high powered grinders?

The obvious answer is that high powered grinders will save you money. 

• Higher power means you can remove more material or make more cuts per year.  Time is money right?
• Higher power also means that your abrasives will be working at their optimal speed, meaning you get a better finish and your abrasives will last longer.

Apart from this, abrasive manufacturers are coming up with more aggressive disks for faster material removal.  The problem with these new disks is that they will destroy most electric grinders and stall most air grinders because they need a high powered tool to run them.  Some examples are the PFERD ALU-Master, CC-Grind disks and the Maija Frästechnik milling discs. These unique new products offer extremely fast material removal but require high powered grinders.

The PFERD ALUMASTER high speed discs are a unique tool that offers very fast material removal.  It is ideal for use on aluminium because it does not produce hazardous or explosive dust. 

It uses ten replaceable tungsten inserts to machine the aluminium rather than grind it.  This also means that the tool doesn’t clog up.  

These discs suit 115mm or 125mm grinders with a max speed of 13,300rpm and PFERD recommend an air grinder of at least 1000watts or an electric grinder of at least 1400watts

Another new disc that requires a high powered grinder are the Maija Frästechnik milling discs.  These are available for a range of materials including steel, aluminium and titanium.  Maija Frästechnik tested and recommend Deprag Turbine powered grinders for use with their discs.

Cengar started business back in 1954 in Halifax, UK.  They patented the world's first twin piston air hacksaw in 1954, and then updated it in 1964.  Since then they have added new models and worked to improve the power, reliability and vibration levels of it's saws.  Recently Cengar updated it's production equipment to again improve quality and reduce lead times.

You will find Cenagr tools in oil rigs, refineries, fibreglass manufacturers, mines and pallet repair facilities all over the world.  They are used to cut steel plate, angle sections, I-beams, bolts, sections and pipes.  All of Cengars saws have very simple, reliable piston motors which use very little air.  No vanes, no bearings, no gears!  They are ATEX approved for T5, Zone 1 hazardous area use except for the Cengar JSM, which is ATEX certified to M2 for underground coal mine use.

Please beware, there are a number of copies of the Cengar CL50 and CL75. They are copies of the old version of these saws so they do not perform as well and they do not have ATEX approvals.  Spare parts are not compatible with modern Cengar saws, and it is an issue to find spares in Australia.

Assembly Technologies Pty Ltd are the Australian importers for Cengar saws.  We usually have all of the saws, blades and spares in stock.  Repair of the saws is very simple, any air tool repair shop should be able to repair them.  In case you have difficulty, we have a full work shop and are able to repair any Cengar saw.

A quick visit to Youtube shows a few dangerous, slow and really clumsy methods of repairing pallets.  Using long bars to pull apart the broken rungs and bashing in old nails brings a tear to our eyes!  

Using a special crow bar of some kind is labor intensive and danegrous if the operator is not careful.  Banging old nails flat is not a good idea if you are  going to replace the rungs because when you nail it back on the new nail can hit the old one and bounce straight back out.

We see many work shops using electric sabre saws to cut off nails.  It doesn't matter how much they spend on these saws, often they don't even last a year and they are dangerous because the cords can easily be damaged.

Cengar has developed two tools especially for pallet repair shops that are repairing pallets all day.  These tools reduce the operators' fatigue so that they can work longer without slowing down, as well as reducing the risk of injury.

The PL905 air hacksaw is a reliable workhorse that will easily last years of year round single shift work.  It features low vibration, a rugged housing and a simple pistion motor that just keeps on going as long as you have clean air and it is lubricated correctly.

The PS2 pallet spreader effortlessly lifts the pallet rungs enough so that you can cut the nails.  A stopper stops the rung from springing out to hit someone in the face.

We also have pneumatic cutters that work exactly like hand operated side cutters, but they are powered by compressed air and easily will cut the toughest nails.

Stop losing money and putting your team at risk, there is a better way!  Please contact us for a demonstration. 

Unfortunately compressed air turbine powered grinders are overlooked by factories because of their high initial cost compared with cheaper tools.  Here we are going to go through and explain some of the advantages of these grinders andd try to explain how they will actually save your organisation money in the long term.

ELECTRIC VS AIR POWER:

240V electric powered grinders are readily available and reasonably cheap, but iunder the stress of continual use an industrial quality air grinder will always outlast the electric grinder as long as it has a quality air supply.  Air grinders will not be affected by dust in the air, they cannot be overloaded or overheated.  The air grinder will also be lighter than an electric grinder with the same power output.  Especially in the case of 230mm grinder, air grinders are available with higher power outputs.  Please note! Most electric tool manufacturers quote the max power input to their tools.  Air tool manufacturers quote the max power output!  So a typical 1000W 240V grinder will only output 600 to 700W of power.  A 1000W air grinder outputs 1000W as long as you have enough air to run it.

POWER to WEIGHT RATIO:

Often we want maximum power without the weight right?  It's not helpful to have high power and high weight or low weight with low power.  Higher power with lower weight means that the work is done faster and with less fatigue.  Less fatigue means less chance of accidents, less breaks and less down time.

Air powered grinders are often chosen over electric tools because for a given power, the vane motor powered grinder is going to be lighter and smaller than a 240V electric grinder. Smaller and lighter tools mean that the operator is not going to be as tired, he can work longer without breaks and there is less chance of injury.

Turbine powered grinders take this a step further.  For example: 

HIGH POWER

Why is high power more important?              Because it saves you money of course!

• Faster material removal - time is money right?  If your trigger time is 3 hours per day, your extra material removal can be a tonne or more over a year compared to a vane powered tool.
• Optimal cutting / grinding speed means that your abrasives last longer - save over 30% on your abrasive costs if you are using quality abrasives!
  • If low powered tools are used, the speed drops when pressure is applied resulting in faster abrasive wear.  HIgh powered tools with speed governors do not slow down.

LOW MAINTENANCE COSTS

Turbine motors have all the advantages of vane motors - (cannot overload, cannot overheat, not affected by dust etc), but they do not have vanes, which is a wear part.  As long as they have clean, water free compressed air, you can depend on them for a trouble free lifetime whereas vane motors have wear parts - especially vanes, that have to be replaced every so often.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Compressed air is EXPENSIVE.  The turbine compressed air motor is already a comparatively efficient air motor (see the above comparisons) which of course means it will cost you less to run your compressor. Deprag has also taken advantage of some of the turbine motor's characteristics to make them even more efficient.

Deprag has included a speed governor in it's range of turbine grinders which means that when the tool is not under load it consumes less than half of the air that it uses when under full load.  As the load increases the govenor progressively opens the air inlet valve, increasing the air supply and thereby increasing the power.  The governor also maintains the correct speed no matter what the load - extending the life of your abrasives.

SUMMARY

To really understand the value of turbine powered angle grinders you need to look past the initial cost, especially if grinding is a big part of your business.  The lifetime cost of every tool has to be considered.  Compressed air, abrasives and man-hours are not cheap and they all add up over time.  Many companies have done the tests and have come to realise that the savings we are talking about are real and significant.  Don't ignore the facts!

Take a look at the Deprag 230mm Turbine grinder in action here: https://youtu.be/sufhzTdhMso