Living in a materiaL worLd - Minnesota Precision Manufacturing ...

shOP | PROFILE
Kurt Workholding
HuNDREDS OF NEW WORKHOLDING OPTIONS
The new Kurt FMS has a total of 32 different workholding fixtures.
In order to provide manufacturers
of precision parts with more options
to compete globally, Kurt Industrial
Products has expanded its workholding
to include an astonishing array of
products. Dozens of new workholding
designs have been introduced in the last
year alone. With them, a new automated
manufacturing system has been installed
at Kurt to provide very fast product
turnaround with the highest quality.
Users of these new Kurt products rave
about the results they are experiencing.
“We wanted to manufacture Kurt
workholding using as much of our
own product as possible,” reported
Steve Tschida, manufacturing manager
for Kurt. “We wanted customers and
prospects to see how our new offerings
could help them become much more
efficient and compete better in a global
economy. We utilized standard Kurt
workholding, custom engineered
workholding, the Kurt DockLock system
and Kurt engineered systems to put this
cell together. In short, we wanted to make
this a showpiece of all Kurt’s abilities to
present and prospective customers.”
The flexible manufacturing system
(FMS) has a total of 32 different
workholding fixtures. All of these are
designed around a four-machine Mazak
Palletech system consisting of 36 pallet
stockers and two load stations. Seven
of the workholding fixtures have been
outfitted with an automatic coupling
device designed by Kurt engineers.
Four of these fixtures are designed to
show the programmer how to approach
more sides of a part, allowing rough
machining operations to be completed
in a single operation. These fixtures
have hydraulic pistons that are key to
the rigidity of the machining process for
producing highly precise components
and a quality end product.
Twenty-five of the manual fixtures in
the FMS line were designed with a similar
goal—to machine all of the components
in a single operation, using as much
standard Kurt products as possible.
Customers Like Haberman Machine,
Inc. Benefit From Kurt’s Workholding
Expertise
Kurt provided a well-known Twin
City precision machining company,
Haberman Machine, Inc, with modified,
standard workholding that reduces setup
time while increasing productivity. Two
customized Kurt XL vises are mounted
back-to-back and vertically. The setup
eliminates the need for a tombstone and
provides center-of-gravity machining
with vibration-free rigidity.
The new workholding setup replaced
a much slower setup process on vertical
machining centers where parts were
clamped lying down. In the new setup,
the matched Kurt vises both have huge,
21-inch jaw openings for clamping
vertical steel workblanks weighing well
over 100 pounds. Important also, the
workholding setup is designed for use on
two different sized machine pallets, giving
Haberman Machine maximum flexibility
to machine a wider range of large parts.
“This is really a great workholding
setup,” reports Scott Ness of Haberman
Machine. “We eliminated the need for
a tombstone, which saves us $5,000 to
$8,000, and we’re not sacrificing clamping
rigidity. The fact that we can center
workpieces and take advantage of gravity
in the setup really prevents vibration
and tool chatter when making the most
aggressive cuts. Our operators like it
because it’s easier to setup and there are
no machining clearance issues. We’re
We eliminated the need for a tombstone,
which saves us $5,000 to $8,000, and we’re
not sacrificing clamping rigidity.
- Scott Ness, Haberman Machine, Inc.
12 | PRECISION MANUFACTURING May | June 201
PAID SUPPLEMENT