WIN woodworking INTERNATIONAL 2022/3

TOOLS
A new tooling system for woodworking blade profiles on FX machines
Complete package for producing woodworking tools
By Simon Richardson, Product Manager
ANCA is well known for offering standard
and special custom solutions for our customers.
When ANCA designs a custom solution,
we give our customers tailored and
diverse options with shorter set-up times.
In an increasingly challenging market,
companies grinding tools are always looking
at innovative products and diversifying
into different sectors using existing or
new machinery.
ANCA recently developed a new product
which provides more flexibility and capability
while enhancing the FX machine range. The
product is a tooling system used on FX5 and
FX7 machines which offers the ability to easily
interchange between woodworking profile
blades and cylindrical (shank) tools.
This means companies grinding woodworking
tools can grind blade profiles and then
quickly change to cylindrical shank tools, such
as compression routers. In addition, companies
focusing predominantly on engineering tools
can consider adding woodworking blade profiles
to their product portfolio.
This tooling system comes as a package.
The package includes a workholding adaptor
(blade chuck) to hold flat profile blades and a
blade gripper head fitted to the robot loader to
load woodworking blades or cylindrical tools
without any mechanical changes. This means
the robot head does not need to be changed. A
blade gripper is used to load and unload blades
and gripper fingers for loading cylindrical tools.
Optional pallets are available for both blades
and shank tools.
The blade chuck works with a pull stud
clamping mechanism. Switching between the
blade chuck and standard collet adaptor (for
cylindrical tools) is done in minutes. Automatic
loading and grinding of blade profiles with a
smallest size of 20 × 20 mm (0.78”) and largest
size of 80 (3.14”) x 30 mm (1.18”) is possible.
This system is also retrofittable to existing FX5
and FX7 machines.
The blade chuck work holding has an adjustable
insertion depth between 8 (5/16”)
and 28 mm (1.10”). The chuck can accommodate
blades on or between 0.5 (0.019”) to
4 mm (0.15”) thick using different size datum
blocks. When manual loading, the chuck can
hold blades up to 120 mm (4.72”) long. Blades
with a bevelled edge can also be supported.
An air blast operates during the clamping and
unclamping cycles to ensure the chuck is free
of any contaminants. Digitizing of the top, side
and bottom of the blade along with notches or
datum features is possible. The chuck can also
rotate for blades with an undercut feature, so
the profile can be ground normal to the blade
surface.
In addition to the tooling system for blades,
ANCA has a dedicated software package for
grinding varied and multiple blade profiles. The
user-friendly software enables quick programming
and short set-up times. The user can easily
define the workholding, blank and profile or import
a DXF. The blades themselves are mounted
into tools used on different woodworking machinery
for cutting profiles into solid wood furniture
and components such as skirting boards
and architraves.
When grinding blade profiles, the depth of
the profile can be quite deep, and a lot of stock
needs to be removed. Slice Roughing is a method
of removing large amounts of stock from the
blade very aggressively, meaning shorter cycle
times. Slice Roughing repeatedly plunges the
roughing wheel downwards into the blade from
the top of the blank to the finish stock amount
specified by the user. When grinding blade profiles
with ANCA software, it’s possible to control
the wheel pivot and relief angles along the profile
which is important for blade grinding. This
flexible tooling system combined with blade
software, offers a complete package for producing
woodworking tools.
www.anca.com
10 No. 3 • August 2022