BIG KAISER says its hydraulic chucks for Swiss-type lathes are the first improvement to this technology in more than 30 years. These toolholders use a single wrench, which makes for a quick and easy change of the cutting tools on a gang slide.

Often used for mass production of small items such as automobile parts, watch parts, medical parts, communication and digital equipment parts, Swiss lathes have many fixed and rotating tools in a narrow space, making it difficult to replace a cutting tool inside the machine. To minimize machine downtime and provide operator safety, the hydraulic chucks use a simple hex wrench that requires only two to three turns for both clamping and unclamping.

To help maintain good repeatability and ease of operability, once a hydro-chuck is centered, the runout will not vary, even if a cutting tool is changed repeatedly. Runout of fewer than 3 microns at 4 times diameter can be achieved.

High-precision cutting with hydraulic chucks is achieved on the automatic lathe with a clamping range of ø4-8mm. They are long lasting, maintenance free and the rigidity is greatly improved by the short projection length and dual pressure points.

Hydraulic chucks have a standard pipe thread for coolant through connection and are available for most Citizen and Star machines with 3/4" or 22 mm straight shank.