Toolholding & Workholding

Featuring tribologically optimized plastic lead screw nuts and hard anodized aluminum screws, new dryspin lead screw options offer considerable weight savings, as well as the reduction of required maintenance and external lubrication, with dramatic increases in service life due, according to igus Inc., East Providence, R.I.

Briney Tooling Systems, Bad Axe, Mich., recently expanded its test bar offering to include CAT40 and CAT50 models; BT30, BT40 and BT50 models, and HSK50A, HSK63A, HSK80A and HSK100A models, according to a Feb. 9 news release. Briney also offers special test bar designs.

At roughly twice the price of a vertical machining center, do horizontal machining centers make sound financial sense? Absolutely, according to Scott Baldus, product specialist at Okuma America Corp. The Charlotte, N.C., machine builder offers both VMCs and HMCs, yet, Baldus noted, HMCs provide, on average, more than three times the spindle utilization of VMCs.

We at Cutting Tool Engineering celebrated the New Year by unveiling a major overhaul to the design and functionality of our website, ctemag.com. Sporting a bright new design with larger text and images, ctemag.com is not only easier on the eyes, it's also easier on the fingers thanks to new navigation and search functionality. In short, finding the information visitors want will take fewer clicks than ever.

Cutting external threads is one of the more difficult machining operations. Achieving the proper thread form can be challenging, and tool chipping and premature tool wear are often problematic because of insufficient surface speeds and high cutting pressures.

CARVEsmart, a division of Bellatex Industries and maker of the original quick-change vise jaw system featuring dovetailed jaw technology, announced a deal giving the Orange Vise Co. an exclusive opportunity to offer CARVEsmart patented features in the Orange Vise Integrated Jaw System (IJS). With CARVEsmart dovetail and clamp features machined directly into the Orange IJS vise, there is no need for master jaws, which is said to save 1.5" of opening, according to a CARVEsmart news release issued Feb. 2.

Schunk Inc. offers modular clamping columns that enable direct clamping of molding plates, freeform parts and other workpieces on the machine table without additional clamping devices or interfering contours. The clamping pillars ensure collision-free processes, a defined clamping situation and a reliable simulation of the machining process, according to the company.

Applications that require minimal batch sizes, high precision requirements, and complex geometries need high-tech solutions to get the job done. SCHUNK's new modular system for direct workpiece clamping is ideal for complex jobs. Modular clamping columns enable direct clamping of molding plates, freeform parts, and other workpieces on the machine table within seconds, without additional clamping devices or interfering contours. The clamping pillars guarantee collision-free processes, a defined clamping situation, and a reliable simulation of the machining. In addition, changes in the workpiece can be implemented quickly due to the high precision of this clamping solution.

AMT Innovations offers a state-of-the-art workholding product, Get-A-Grip. The new cutting-edge triangular dovetail will never distort or deform the workpiece. The dovetail provides three evenly spaced, radial force vectors for superior gripping. Through carefully thought out triangular contact geometry, this product eliminates the need for an indexing pen. The pioneering internal clamping geometry reduces material preparation area and can be strategically placed where the finished part may have a pocket, which greatly reduces secondary operations.

KME CNC developed a 5-axis tombstone 8 years ago for horizontal machining centers that allows milling on five or more sides of a workpiece and on four different platters in a single setup. Recently, the company unveiled a version that requires no wires, cables or any type of connection, making it easier to move parts in and out of a machine.

Your shop just bought its first 5-axis machining center. Now what? Not only are there new and more complex programming techniques to learn—never mind the mind-boggling variety of part processing options to contend with—there's also the pesky problem of how to grip workpieces. With the ability to tilt, rotate and position parts in ways never before possible, machining five sides of a workpiece in a single setup is a challenging but straightforward exercise—provided clearance between the workpiece, machine table and spindle head is maintained.

The array of configurations is vast, but angle heads typically serve a common function: eliminate having to perform a separate operation to access a part feature when thenworkpiece can't be indexed.