Tool Changes in Less Than 2 Seconds
That’s the promise of a new electrospindle design that replaces traditional tool-changing mechanisms with an integrated, eight-station tool carrier to shave seconds from any specialty application.
With as many as eight stations, the ATC spindles are capable of milling, turning, grinding, tapping and other metalcutting operations.
For a variety of reasons, electrospindles are a popular choice for specialty machine tools and robot arms equipped for light milling or trimming. According to developer ITI Tooling, the new ATC series spindle offers similar advantages and drawbacks as any other quality electrospindle, with one notable exception: It doesn’t require a toolchanger to perform tool changes.
Not in the traditional sense, that is. Rather than relying on arms, carousels and other external systems, the ATC series ships with a built-in, multistation tool carrier. This design is said to enable swapping one tool for another in only 1.5 seconds, compared to as many as 5 seconds for traditional tool changers, without compromising the traditional benefits of an electrospindle. This brief article provides more information.
