PowRgrip Responds to Three Tooling Trends

When Rego-Fix first launched its PowRgrip tooling system in the early 2000s, it was a collection of toolholders, collets and clamping units that could handle tools ranging from 20 millimeters to 3 millimeters. But as the manufacturing landscape has changed over the past 20 years, PowRgrip has evolved with it. The company initially promoted it as a high-performance system, but the addition of automation can make tool assembly even more efficient. At the same time, manufacturers need highly accurate tools in a wider range of sizes. “As the market has changed, it's not only become a high-performance system, but it has also become a high-precision system,” says David McHenry, engineering and Machining Center of Excellence manager at Rego-Fix. “We're able to do the very difficult heavy roughing and hard machining all the way down to the really small, fine drills and machine work that we're seeing.”

1. From Easy to Automated Tool Assembly

PowRgrip was designed to make tool assembly easier and require less training than traditional methods. “You don't have to have highly trained machinists to be able to put it together,” McHenry explains. “Users can keep their highly trained machinists running their machines, doing the programs, doing what's important for their shop.” This ease of use also enables the system to be automated with a robot. The system started as a demo for IMTS in 2018, and Rego-Fix received a lot of positive responses about it from shops who were having trouble finding employees. “That kind of started the spark that people are interested in this,” he says. “It's not just a little novelty to draw people in at the trade show. It's actually a need.” Since then, the company has gone through several iterations of the automatable PowRgrip system, including pneumatically and electronically controlled versions, which users can integrate into a cell that fits their needs. The company is also working on incorporating tool presetters into automated cells. A demonstration of this was on display at IMTS 2024 and was running in the company’s new Center of Machining Excellence.

2. Smaller Tools

McHenry partly attributes an increased demand for smaller cutting tools to the semiconductor industry. “We are definitely seeing a trend in high-precision machining,” he says. “Lots of people getting into or improving their processes for memory chips or computer processors.” These parts require very small tools, in the range of eight to twelve thousandths of an inch in diameter, which the original PowRgrip system was not equipped to handle. “Three millimeters didn't quite cut it for that really small micromachining that we're talking about now,” he continues. The company released a smaller PowRgrip system, the PG 6, which can handle tools ranging from 4 millimeters to 0.2 millimeters. Not only does it make assembling high-precision tools much easier, it also has vibration damping properties, which is critical in micromachining applications.

3. Bigger Tools

At the same time, McHenry says Rego-Fix is also seeing demand in the opposite direction. “We do a lot of work for companies that send things into space, and one of the things they've asked for is much bigger diameter tools,” he notes. These tools are used in applications with high material removal, such as heavy roughing. In response to these requests, Rego-Fix released the PG 48, which can handle tools as large as 1.5 inches in diameter. “It’s a totally new PowRgrip series, and it's dedicated just to those super large, heavy roughing tools,” he adds.

According to McHenry, PowRgrip’s expansion is intended to bring accurate and simple tool assembly to a wider range of applications. “Not only do tools need to have the precision, but they need simplicity for putting it all together,” he says.