Straightforward toolholding setup procedures make it easy to achieve accurate results quickly and efficiently. When you’re sitting in front of a cart filled with the tools you need for your daily workflow, you don’t want to run through a lengthy sequence of time-consuming steps that often produce inaccurate results. Unfortunately, that’s the definition of the traditional method of assembling collet-based toolholders.
To begin that setup process, you need to look up torque values based on holder series and tool diameter. You’ll have to find those values on a reference chart, but you’ll have to find the right chart first. Once you identify the correct values, you need a torque wrench – and once again, you’ll have to find the wrench before you can unlock it, set its torque level and re-lock it. After all those steps, you’re finally ready to pick up the toolholder collet and tighten its collet nut or retention knob.
Mistakes can happen at every turn – the wrong values, the wrong wrench, the wrong settings – any of which can leave toolholders too tight or too loose. If it’s too tight, you’re potentially damaging toolholders and tools with too much torque. If it’s too loose, the tool can pull out of its holder and injure an employee or damage your equipment. Both of these scenarios can lead to out-of-spec parts and poor surface finishes, which translate to lost time and revenue. No wonder some shops simply set their torque wrenches to an arbitrary value – often the maximum – and try to cut corners with a shortcut that almost never works properly.
What kind of effective tool setup system would enhance usability, eliminate the guesswork and make the process virtually mistake proof? At REGO-FIX, we asked ourselves that question – and the answer was incredibly simple: Remove the need to adjust and use torque wrenches, find charts and look up values. Create a solution that works with all our ER collets and toolholders, along with our micRun toolholding system, other brands with compatible torque ratings, and all standard spindle interfaces, including CAT, SK, BT, HSK and REGO-FIX CAPTO options.
The result of that industrial design process is our TORCO-BLOCK tool-setup assistant. To invent this product, we rejected approaches that relied on bulky hardware or required expensive, complicated digital gauges. Our goal was to create an easy-to-use solution that also saved time and added intuitive ease to a process that’s usually anything but uncomplicated or effortless.
TORCO-BLOCK is an analog device about the size of a shoebox – 10.629″ x 6.693″ and 5.118″ high (270 x 170 x 130 mm) – that mounts to a workbench with six bolts. The device includes a set of 10 color-coded indicator rings, each displaying the shank diameters for a specific type of collet. Click the appropriate ring in place on top of the unit, fasten a toolholder adapter with two screws, set a single indicator to the appropriate shank diameter and use a standard wrench to tighten the toolholder. Inside the unit, a hydraulic system measures torque and displays it on a pressure gauge on top of the unit. When the indicator needle lines up with the desired torque value, you know the adjustment is correct and complete.
This simple process transforms a lengthy, convoluted sequence into a straightforward, accurate solution. In creating TORCO-BLOCK, we upheld the goals of industrial design to make products with strong functionality and great ease of use. No more wild goose chases for charts, values, wrenches and settings: The next time you assemble a collet-based toolholder, let the TORCO-BLOCK tool setup assistant make the process quick, accurate and reliable.