High Speed Machining Precision Tooling - Indobiz.biz

that sometimes are only available
from one manufacturer.
Selection of the Proper Shrink Fit Chuck
While there are many suppliers of shrink
fi t chucks available, there are good
and bad shrink fi t chucks available. It
is important to do research related to
the selection of a toolholder for your
particular application.
oil mist down to the cutting edge of
the cutting tool. This helps with the
proper removal of chips and can
also aid in providing better fi nishes.
In addition, if a mold shop does high
precision drilling, a shrink chuck
makes an excellent holder for coolant
through drills since no accessories
or special collets are needed—the
sealed design of the toolholder simply
allows the coolant to fl ow through the
cutting tool.
9. Consistency of setup
Shrink fi t holders provide the best
repeatability from toolholder setup
to toolholder setup. This is especially
benefi cial for those shops running
lights out. For example, all toolholder
setup operators set the toolholders
the same with shrink fi t holders.
There are no variables—such as
over-tightening or under-tightening a
collet nut or not cleaning out a chuck
suffi ciently. Also, as mentioned the
balance characteristics are the
most repeatable. This combination
of consistency allows a shop to truly
monitor their tool life and understand
how many parts they can machine
with each toolholder setup—again,
this is truly an important part of
getting to the point of lights out
machining.
10. Availability of shrink chucks
Most of the major toolholder builders
in the world now offer shrink fi t chucks
as a standard. Therefore, mold shops
are not roped into proprietary high
precision collets or press fi t systems
Typically, the initial purchase of your
toolholders will last the life of your
machine tool. Studies have found that
the overall expense of toolholders
equals less than 0.5 percent of the
overall machining process during the
life of the machine tool.
The relationship between the bore of
the holder and the taper lead to the
accuracy of the chuck. It is important
to choose a company that truly makes
their own product and specializes only
in the production of toolholders. This
guarantees you the most consistent
and accurate toolholder available for
your job.
The material of the shrink fi t chucks is
also a key element in making the correct
selection. If a substandard material is
used, one might shorten the life of the
shrink fi t chuck based on limited heating
cycles. A shrink fi t toolholder made of the
correct material should remain effective
indefi nitely.
Also, it is important that the chucks
subscribe to the DIN standards on the
nose dimensions so that all cooling
options from the shrink fi t machine side
can be utilized.
In general, it is recommended to
purchase chucks with many “options”
built-in (such as balanced so that there
is under 1 gmm of unbalance in the
chuck, balanceable design, bore for the
data chip, form “DIN B” coolant delivery
option, etc.) so that you are not limited
in the future as your operation evolves.
Finally, the company making the chucks
should be an industry leader, constantly
putting further efforts into research
and development into new toolholding
concepts that can further strengthen
the role of shrink fi t toolholders in the
mold market.
For example, the recent development
of a shrink fi t chuck1 that provides an
anti-vibration feature in a shrink chuck.
This feature helps dampen the vibration
during roughing operations that had at
one time occurred with standard shrink
fi t chucks due to the extreme rigidity of
the setup.
Summary
It is often stated by shop owners and
plant managers that shrink fi t tooling
has been the best investment they
have made in the past fi ve years.
Acceptance of the use of shrinking
technology in the mold and die market
has played a vital role in strengthening
Asian manufacturing capabilities and
preparing it for continued growth.
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indometalworking news Vol. 2 / 2008