Case History:  Material Stripping   McNeil OLS equipment for material removal and stripping.  McNeil OLS equipment for material removal and stripping.  McNeil OLS equipment for material removal and stripping.  McNeil OLS equipment for material removal and stripping.

The Challenge:

Our customer produces friction plates for a wide variety of applications. From time to time the application of the friction material to the steel disc was faulty. They needed a solution to remove the bad material and recover the steel backing disc. The discs are very heavy gauge stampings and are the most expensive part of the finished product. OLS was contacted to investigate the possibility of removing the material and recovering the discs.

The Solution:

Our engineers designed a simple operator loaded machine, the McNeil OLS Model 3910, using a very aggressive wire brush to strip away the friction material, leaving a completely clean surface. The discs are clamped on a rotating platen and coolant is applied to cool the brush and the parts and to control removed material. The brush is driven by a powerful 5 HP motor with pneumatically controlled cutting pressure.

The Benefits:

The orientation of the brush to the part insures that the material is completely removed without damaging the coating on the disc, also leaving a roughed up surface for better adherence of the new material. Our customer calculated that, even given the cost of the machine, the brush media and the operating expenses, there was still a huge cost savings over scrapping the steel discs. They now have a solution immediately at hand to recover discs in the future.