Tool Your Turrets In Minutes Rather Than Hours
It’s axiomatic that manufacturing machines only make money when they’re making chips, and the more chips machines produce by reducing setup and retooling downtime, the more money they make. While those statements apply across the board, they’re especially true for live-tool Swiss-style lathes and mill-turn machines that can take literally hours to set up and retool.
However, two REGO-FIX tooling solutions – the powRgrip toolholding and swissQuick ER Quick Change systems – eliminate the lion’s share of the steps required by the time consuming and tedious process of setting up, reloading and touching off new cutting tools.
With tool changeouts in under 10 seconds, powRgrip stands alone in terms of convenience and ease of use. Automated or manual tabletop powRgrip toolsetting units apply up to 1,100 Nm of clamping torque with a hydraulic press to insert special shallow-tapered collets into holders with matching taper without the fumes and heat associated with other tool holding systems. Properly cared for, the powRgrip holder and collet provides excellent vibration damping and will maintain total indicated runout (TIR) of less than 0.0001” through five years or 20,000 cycles with no erosion of impregnated surface treatment.
Due to its versatility, powRgrip allows shops to reduce tooling inventory and can be the go-to tool holding option for an entire shop whether in the CNC or lathe department.
SwissQuick adapter holders provide a rigid ER to ER reduction with a larger ER body at the rear that remains in the machine, allowing operators to install a new cutting tool into the turret in seconds without removing the entire live head. Fine-thread and coarse-thread options are available with solid ER connection ranging from ER11 to ER25. Run out inside taper to outside taper is less than 0.0001”.
In combination, the two systems allow operators to essentially multi-task and quickly bench set and measure their tools for the next job with powRgrip while the machine is running. To retool the machine turret, the operator simply threads in the new tool without the necessity of removing the entire toolholder from the turret. Retooling is reduced from hours to minutes with benefits that include nominal TIR, extreme repeatability, tool rigidity and excellent vibration damping.
Manufacturing applications involving high axial loads such as drilling, reaming and light milling on materials that cause high tool wear and frequent changeovers will see the most benefit from combining powRgrip and swissQuick; however, both solutions, even individually, provide significant tool changing time savings for any machining process.