Manufacturing Machinery World February 2020

NEW PRODUCTS – NEW PRODUCTS – NEW PRODUCTS
NEW CHUCKS DEMONSTRATE MAPAL BRILLIANCE
For over 25 years, MAPAL has built up a
broad portfolio of clamping products that
ranges from the clamping cartridge to the
application-specific hydraulic chuck. Now,
MAPAL is announcing an entirely new
appearance for these items.
By re-designing product lines, the
complete range will now have a uniform
appearance and simultaneously offer added
value for customers by utilising intelligent
design strategies. Until now, industrial
product design has played a less significant
role during the development of chucks at
MAPAL with the focus primarily centering
upon reliable functionality. As a result, the
developers at MAPAL have gradually built
up a broad portfolio that did not have a
uniform appearance. To evolve this situation,
MAPAL involved experts from an awardwinning
design agency in Schwaebisch
Gmuend, Germany.
The remit was to revise the appearance of
the chucks whilst adding value for the
customer by means of carefully considered
industrial design. Why? An ingenious design
is not only a visual highlight, it also taps into
economic and ecological benefits for both
MAPAL and its customer base. Using this as
a starting point, the product designers
The WIDIA NOVO online platform available
in the UK from Industrial Tooling
Corporation (ITC) now allows tool assemblies
to be directly imported by users of
Mastercam, credit to a new collaboration. The
partnership between WIDIA and CNC
software developers Mastercam now provide
a solution that enables information importing
from NOVO directly into Mastercam 2018.
Mastercam developers have worked
closely with WIDIA to enable users to import
3D tool assemblies directly into Mastercam,
validate them and save the files in their
Mastercam file and/or Tool Library. Features
such as automated filtering ensure that tools
and holders can work together for the
particular job. Users of Mastercam benefit
from having the correct tooling for the
material and for the type of machining
operation plus an accurate 3D model that can
be used for visualisation and collision
checking. All this delivers significant time
savings to ITC customers that are working
with Mastercam and the WIDIA NOVO
platform.
In the past, manufacturers may have
complained of having to search through big
complicated catalogues to find related tools,
then having to request or build the assemblies
worked in synergy with product developers
at MAPAL, building completely new
concepts that are based on functional FEM
analyses to improve performance,
ergonomics and economy for end users.
Developed according to this design brief,
the new chucks shine with proverbial
brilliance. One of the elements in the new
concept is the brilliant surface finish. This
surface finish is credit to a specially
developed polishing method that ensures the
chucks are more resistant to corrosion than
previous versions.
A further design requirement was
‘foolproof-handling’; creating something that
creates easy and self-explanatory handling of
chucks. Operational elements were to for
customers to be able to quickly identify the
WIDIA ANNOUNCE NEW FAST AND SIMPLE
TOOLING DATA SOLUTION
from scratch for use in systems such as
Mastercam. With the integration of WIDIA
NOVO and Mastercam, end users save
significant time searching for desired tools
and building 3D tool assemblies that can be
brought directly into Mastercam for easy use
by most shops. Accurate tool definitions are a
critical factor in modern CAM applications
and toolpath algorithms take advantage of
these definitions to provide safe and efficient
motion. In addition, the models imported
from WIDIA NOVO help to generate accurate
in-process stock models that can be leveraged
in subsequent operations.
Chris Merlin, Director of Portfolio
Commercialisation at WIDIA, states: ”One of
the promises of digitisation in manufacturing
chuck of choice with handling information
also being self-explanatory. These
requirements were addressed by the blue
color of features such as the actuating screws
on a hydraulic chuck and by internally
developed symbols that contain
corresponding information, irrespective of
the related language.
Finally, the product engineers and design
engineers studied and optimised the chucks
by undertaking a complete review of the
weight, material selection and size. The new
design addresses the requirements for the
greatest possible stability and vibration
dampening characteristics. Even the smallest
weight savings on chucks have a major
impact that becomes apparent over time. A
lightweight chuck will consume less energy
during acceleration and deceleration of the
spindle.
With a new corporate design, the
complete clamping range can now be
immediately identified as stemming from the
MAPAL stable. This is of critical importance
for MAPAL, as the company has not
historically been perceived as a manufacturer
of chucks.
Phone: +44 (0) 1788 574700
e-mail: sales@uk.mapal.com
Web: www.mapal.com
is greater precision and speed through
effective use of data. This is where integration
is a must. Users want their systems to work
together seamlessly via simple solutions,
without extra effort on their part. By
connecting Mastercam and WIDIA NOVO,
users can effortlessly join cutting tool data
with machining data. The 3D models,
drawings, and starting parameters are easily
available for validation and programming
processes. All of this leads to less
misapplication of tooling solutions, more
optimal machining strategies, and increased
productivity with better quality in the
manufacturing environment.”
Tel: 01827 304500
Email: sales@itc-ltd.co.uk
Web: www.itc-ltd.co.uk
Manufacturing Machinery World, February 2020 13