Shaving tool-change time saves big bucks
Reduce setup and changeover time on lathes with live tooling. A modular quick-change collet system.
END USER: Daystar Machining Technologies Inc., (828) 684-1316, www.daystarmachining.com.
CHALLENGE: Reduce setup and changeover time on lathes with live tooling.
SOLUTION: A modular quick-change collet system.
SOLUTION PROVIDER: Benz Inc., (866) 852-BENZ, www.benz-inc.com.
Performing quicker tool changes continues to be a priority at machine shops everywhere, because reducing machine setup by minutes or even seconds can add up to savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. In addition to reducing setup and changeover times, flexible and stable quick-change system can cut tooling costs. Daystar Machining Technologies Inc., Fletcher, N.C., wanted to improve setup time when it purchased two Hurco lathes with live tooling last year. The shop previously didn’t have any live-tool machines.
Company President Jimmy Lytle noted the shop focuses on machining and fabrication with quick turnaround for short runs, prototypes and specialty parts. When Daystar personnel visited Hurco’s Indianapolis facility for a demonstration, they saw the lathes equipped with the Benz Solidfix modular quick-change collet system from Benz Inc., Charlotte, N.C.
With conventional tooling, when a shop finishes a run it has to remove the driven tools and then remove and clean the collet. This is a relatively cumbersome operation that requires the use of two hands and multiple tools, installation of the new tooling and taking offset measurements, according to Benz. Using Benz Solidfix, operators don’t have to remove the main tooling unit itself. Instead, they simply change the adapter, which holds a premeasured tool.
After seeing the demonstration, Lytle examined some other quick-change systems but determined Benz Solidfix was the best fit and purchased the quick-change system separately from the machine. “We are able to switch from a drill chuck to a collet chuck to a shell mill adapter to a solid endmill holder without having to change to a different live toolholder for each application,” he said. “Basically, anything you could think of to go on the end can be changed very rapidly.”
This means Daystar doesn’t have to buy as many live tools, which cost from $1,000 to $1,500 each, Lytle said. “Using this quick-change system, we have one somewhat-expensive toolholder and everything else is fairly inexpensive, costing a couple hundred dollars. This gives us a great deal of versatility without a major capital investment.”
Courtesy of Benz
With the Benz Solidfix quick-change collet system, operators don’t have to remove the main tooling unit. Instead, they simply change the adapter, which holds a premeasured tool.
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March 2014
In developing the modular system, Benz reportedly simplified conventional quick-change technology. Instead of requiring an operator to spin on and tighten tooling in the holder using a wrench, the quick-change system requires only a turn of an Allen wrench. “Basically, turn a screw, pop a new head in, turn a screw and you’re done,” Lytle said.
In addition, in a conventional quick-change system, the operator has to remove the tool, install a new one and then touch off the tool to ensure the offset is correct. With the modular system, the operator can preset tools on a granite surface plate. When a cutting tool starts to wear or another type of tool is required, the operator inserts and secures the new tool.
Lytle said: “We have quick-change adapters on all the live tooling for those lathes. We can set the adapters out on the workbench and get everything ready for a setup. Then we are in and out of the machine very quickly.”
He noted the Benz Solidfix system reduces tool-change time from as much as 5 minutes to 10 to 15 seconds.
“Essentially, they’re putting the whole tool aggregate back in, and the repeatability is so accurate they can program in what they just measured off their height gage so they don’t have to go through that scenario of touching off the tool and then programming the offset,” explained Mike Starnes, sales application engineer for Benz. “It is really a plug-and-play system. Operators just switch out the soft tooling and they’re all set.”
He added that with Benz Solidfix, operators are performing a much simpler task, which usually can be done with one hand.
Lytle added that Daystar is planning to also use the quick-change system for right-angle heads on its machining centers.
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