Emergency Prep for your Waterjet

As adverse and damaging weather events seem to be occurring at a higher rate of regularity, let’s review emergency preparation for your waterjet so you may attempt to mitigate the impact on your capital equipment. Whether it is hurricane, floods, or whatever else might come your way, OMAX is committed to aiding you get your business back to normal with personnel available both by phone and in-person.

Below, we’ve assembled a checklist of operation/cleaning procedures for post-weather event preparations.

+++ First and foremost, insure your machine. An OMAX waterjet is not a cheap item. For many businesses, their waterjet is their livelihood. Please make sure that in the event of a catastrophic event, you will be able to recoup costs and restore your machine properly. +++

OMAX/MAXIEM/EnduroMAX Pump

As a preemptive measure, if a high water situation is reported, it might be a good idea to move your pump to on top of your cutting bed. Often time, flood waters and debris do not crest the height of your tank. Unplug the electrical and disconnect the water hose. With a forklift or crane, move your pump onto the slate bed of your tank.

After an incident:

1. Use your facility's Lockout/Tagout procedure to securely disconnect power from the pump.
2. Remove the covers and visually inspect the pump’s condition.
3. Clean out the white charge pump tank on OMAX/EnduroMAX pumps.
4. Clean out the RO System Holding tank on MAXIEM machines with an RO.
5. Change the oil in the pump’s crankcase as water may have entered through the breather tube.
6. Disconnect and blow out all hoses in the system – both internal and external to the pump.
7. Remove and inspect/replace all filters from their housings. Clean out any residual water and blow out the input and output lines.
8. Open the electrical cabinet and carefully inspect the internal components, including: 

• Clean and dry the internal components. A large fan is often used to dry out wet equipment.
• Change the cabinet air filter.
• There may be dirt and debris inside of components including the VFD. This needs to be fully cleaned out.
• The electric motor may be full of dirt and debris also. It may require a certified motor shop to disassemble the motor and clean it properly.

OMAX/MAXIEM Table

Depending on the style of machine you have, you will want to inspect and clean:

1. Water level control circuitry.
2. IntelliTRAX rails and beams – wipe down the linear feedback tape and sensor readhead surface.
3. Electronics that are inside the bridge uprights – remove the covers to find power supplies, servo cards, etc which may need cleaning.
4. Table Control cabinets often house computers, power supplies, servo cards, and other electronic devices. These will need to be thoroughly dried and cleaned.
5. Change the table control cabinet air filter.
6. Once all the electrical components are readied for power up testing, close and secure all the doors and upright covers. 

Once the pump and electrical cabinets are cleaned and prepared for operation, reassemble everything, close and lock the electrical cabinet doors, turn on the OMAX pump without the main feed energized, then turn on the main feed. CAUTION: There is potential danger in doing this as there may still be dirt and debris remaining that could cause a short circuit, either blowing fuses or tripping the circuit breaker.

If you have any other concerns, please let us know how we can help by calling (800) 298–4036 or sending an email to: techsupport@omax.com.