WORKHOLDING
Kurt melded some features from two existing vises, and then designed some new elements to make the DX6 CrossOver more versatile.
“With the pull-style vise you put virtually no stress into the body when you clamp, just into the end that’s stationary,” said Tschida. “If you reduce the stress into the body it helps keep the vise fl atter and locates your part better when you clamp a part in it.”
Kane pointed out one last detail about the DX6’s design. “They designed a through-body chip evacuation,” he said. “So with the D688, chips will go back and hit a wall and have to go out the sides of the device. With the DX6 they can fl ow straight through [and] right out the back.” This more direct way allows coolant and chips to exit the vise body and prevent chip build up.
Workholding Stacks Up BIG Kaiser (Hoffman Estates, IL) is focusing on modular workholding for fi ve-axis and fi ve-sided machining, and said it’s all about fl exibility.
“The uniqueness of our system comes in the fact that you can put it together to accomplish whatever you need for your specifi c part requirements,” said John Zaya, product manager for workholding. “With our fi ve-axis system, we have fl exibility at the table face, meaning we can put our units either in random locations on the table or we can put them in fi xed locations via grid plates. We even have the ability to mount a knob to a grid plate or the T-slot.” The Unilock Modular Workholding System has the ability to handle large or small parts, with appropriate fastening devices for sizes at either end of the spectrum. “We try to accommodate what we see in terms of the gam- ut of small parts and big parts in all types of fi ve-axis machines as well as in standard three-axis machines,” Zaya said. He pointed out that operators new to fi ve-axis machining sometimes fall back on old ways for the proper sizing of the machine to do their workpiece.
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AdvancedManufacturing.org | January 2017
“Let’s say for example a customer has tradition- ally been working with a three-axis machine, they have had the ability to handle workpieces that can range in a variety of sizes,” he said. “So they can handle small parts, you know parts as big as your fi st, and other parts as big as you with a three-
axis machine because they can move to whatever position they need. There’s usually lots of clearance available in just those three axes of movement.” However, Zaya said, when the operator switches to
fi ve-axis machining and fi ve-sided machining with a large trunnion or gantry-style machine, and tries to machine small workpieces, the amount of clearance needed from the ma- chine to the table and the machine spindle to the workpiece, becomes very constrictive. Zaya said one of the common areas of interference is between the table of the machine and the spindle housing, because the table, as it rotates and pivots, often can inter- fere with the spindle housing if the workpiece is at center position on the table.
“Then the machine has to try and reach across that large table,” he said. “To remedy that gap from the edge of the table to the center of the workpiece, or to the center line of the table, the operator can do one of two things.” He can bridge that gap with very long toolholders and cutting tools that allow him to work closer to the center of the envelope. But that creates a new problem. As cutting tools get longer, they get less effi cient because they have to run at lower speeds and lower depths of cut. The other option to provide clearance is to elevate the workpiece off the table, Zaya said. “That becomes a more viable solution because in many cases the system like Unilock’s fi ve-axis stacking system is much more rigid than the tooling could ever be,” he said. “So the workpiece is then held more rigidly at a higher elevation off the table, and that provides the clearance that’s needed for the spindle over the table and shortens the gap. Now the tools can be shortened and they regain their effi ciency.” The system creates new opportunities along with solv-
ing problems.
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