Dry metal chips, cleared in under two minutes.

A tractor manufacturer machining steel gearbox blocks was struggling with the final clean-down. Dry metal shavings accumulated on the machined parts after each CNC operation — enough to mark delicate surfaces, jeopardise component quality and clog the machinery if left to build up.

Clearing the chips by hand between operations was slow, and a build-up around each machine got in the way of both the work and the operators — a drag on a line that needs to keep moving.

Depureco installed four HF 300 stationary units — one per CNC machine — each with a 3 kW side-channel turbine and a Class M filter that captures dust down to one micron across 24,000 cm² of filtering surface. Each unit is integrated directly with its machine’s collection system, so the chips are drawn off at source rather than swept up afterwards.

A counterbalanced flap on each unit handles discharge automatically: when suction stops, the flap releases the collected chips straight into the CNC machine’s own collection bin. There is nothing for an operator to empty by hand between cycles.

The full surface of a gearbox block is now cleaned in under two minutes, with no manual debris handling and no build-up around the machines. The units handle high volumes of chips without complaint and hold their performance under intensive, continuous duty — keeping the line moving and the swarf contained for recycling.