Kalamazoo Industries’ 1CC 5C collet fixture for chucks enables quick setup of 5C collets. It is well-suited for short runs with no need to remove the power chuck, the company says. The user chucks the OD in the power or manual chuck, threads the collet in or out and makes a half-turn to lock. The fixture is “dead length” for non-lateral workpiece movement to maintain original datum for repeat operations. The fixtures can be mounted in vertical and horizontal mills and machining centers and can be stacked for multiple parts. The collet fixture is made of hardened and ground steel. It features with drilled and tapped holes and a pilot in the rear for fixture mounting.
Moving to five-axis machining enabled this shop to dramatically reduce setup time and increase lights-out capacity, but success relied on the right combination of workholding and automation.
When a casting proved too malleable for traditional gripping, Thomas/Euclid Industries adopted — and succeeded with — Blue Photon adhesive workholding.
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