Is anyone using Benz aggregates that would care to chime in with their experience?

I'm on my 6th 4-way aggregate in 6 years and I just don't think they are making them the same as they used to. Bearing change? Grease change? These are sealed units with no end user lubrication options.

The first just wore out, years of use, got sloppy, as expected. Second and third were not Benz issues but a spindle replacement issue, wrong thickness C-axis mounting plate. Fourth made it nearly a year but something inside 'broke' and just turning by hand could be jammed. Fifth lasted no more than five months of typical (for me) usage. SOUNDED HORRIBLE from day one. Got so loud I was near afraid to spin it.

Now I'm on a new one and it was dead silent for less than a week. I'm under the RPM limit and I've slowed the acceleration to 80 rev/s to lessen it's stress. I've reduced the RPM of one of the four tools as much as I could to not run at a single RPM on every tool thinking this might help. It's already getting 'louder' and it's a new high pitches whistle.

Oddly enough, NO heat build up at all and the output is what it should be. Benz turned off their service email and only have sales options now and I'm not 'allowed' to call them as I'm just the programmer/operator and have no phone to use at work.

I'd love to hear if anyone has anything to add, good or bad, before I call them from home and beg for help.

Thank you all!

I have 5 aggregates(two of them new) and 3 old ones. Of the old, 2 are Benz. I have a single output adjustable angle head(2003) and a moulder head(2007?). Both of them are oil bath lubrication, not grease. I chose that type because they are rated for constant duty, without cool down times. The adjustable angle unit has been rebuilt once due to wear. The moulder unit has been rebuilt twice. First time we were cutting flexible moulding stock and it flexed on the fixture and over torqued the head. Second time, the operator put the gibs in backwards and trashed the thing. Both units have a lot of hours on them and have served us well. When we bought a new machine, I picked up a couple of aggregates because the torque arm setup is different from the old machine. Both are oil bath versus grease and neither are Benz. Aggregates are wear items. They will not last as long as many other components on your machine. If you are using aggregates so much that your business is dependent on those types of cuts, maybe a tilting horizontal head or a 5 axis head is a better solution.

I work in a large company, I am simply a tiny cog in a large machine and I was dumped on my CNC for my computer and math skills, so my input on future machines means nothing. $8K per aggregate vs. $300k for a new 5-axis would NEVER happen. On that note, Stiles Machinery has mentioned they've had a much higher than normal return rate of aggregates lately and they are looking into what components are failing, so it's possible it's a change that's causing my grief.

Feel for those of us in positions like mine, high expectations, low support.

Thank you very much for your input. I think the term aggregate shuts out enough users and I'm glad they don't have to fight with these beasts on a daily basis.

Steven,
If you are using them on a daily basis, I am sorry. I think that if you need to use them that heavily, the investment on the machine side is money better spent. We have a lot of aggregates, but put less than 100 hours of work on them in a year unless there is some type of specific job we run into.

On the subject of Benz, I have heard that Stiles purchased the company or own some controlling interest. Not really sure and I don't necessarily care. I do know that all my old contacts with Benz are gone and the new people refer me to Stiles for oil or parts that I can replace myself. I don't know if this change is why components are failing early, but its worth looking into. Good luck.