I'd like to talk about some of the newer methods, as Bob said, which really gets into systems with higher reliability and lower maintenance. One system that we see becoming very popular is something that we call Continuous Pressure Hydraulics, or CPH. With this type of a system you often see the potential for introducing other capabilities to improve the process reliability of the parts you're producing, like electrical sensing for CNC fixtures to sense the part on the fixture, therefore reducing scrap. By utilizing that type of technology you also often see through fixture coolant loss where you must automate the process or error-proof the process to make sure no chips will effect locating of the next part that will be loaded to the fixture. Often times this can be utilized as well in automated environments when a robot is loading the part that can't visually detect that the chips are in the way. By using technology you want to eliminate operations with creativity and this kind of technology which we will talk about more in the case studies.

A little bit more on the CPH type of a system. What's really nice about this type of technology is it's expandable. For example, as you're looking at the picture to the right you can have standalone horizontal machining centers with a CPH system on it. It has two hydraulic ports available to each pallet so it'll hold four parts. What makes this type of a system so clever and valuable is that it gives you the ability to improve your process by expanding and adding pallets. In the case up to twelve ports per pallet are being utilized with the expansion capability. And not only can you expand the twelve ports per pallet but you can also control those twelve ports through M-code or through the program. That gives you a lot more flexibility in what you can do to improve your part process.

An air circuit can be included on this type of a system; giving you the ability to sense the part on the fixture, further error checking and mistake-proofing the process to eliminate wastes. As we mentioned before coolant port through the center to clean chips to improve reliability of the process as well.

Another key benefit of the CPH system is repeatable sequencing. Because this type of a system can be programmed with M- code in your part program, the repeatability of sequencing for the clamping of the part is extremely good, which will improve the process reliability of that part that you're manufacturing. Also, a 3000 PSI hydraulic supply is used with this type of a system. This gives you a lot of flexibility for very high-force clamping, because that clamping force can actually be controlled by a program. You can move clamps during the machining cycle. If you can possibly imagine or maybe even had the situation before where you have clamps that are interfering with the cutter path, imagine the face mill moving down a part and there are three or four clamps in its way. As that face mill moves in a linear direction down a part, one by one those clamps swing away from the part, allowing the cutter to pass, closing, the next clamp opens up, and the cutter continues down the line. If you can imagine that, this is what can be done with this type of a system.

Adjustment of the hydraulic pressure is another key point. If you can imagine a part that might have thin walls. As you're machining further material from this part that was already thin and flimsy and difficult to hold, points on that particular part could be adjusted live while you're machining the part. And so you can imagine there are hundreds of configurations and capabilities, combinations of way you can use this type of a system to improve the part process.

I thought you'd be interested in taking a look at what this CPH type system can do in terms of its programmable capability. You can see the part actually rotating. This is a nice application because it is fully programmable. And basically you see that bore on the left side of the part that came down into the horizontal plane and now it's moving back up. Most of the machining operations on this part are done in this setting that you're looking at now, but this fixture even live inside the machine during the machining process can be programmed to index. This is reducing the setup time by 50 percent because you're literally taking an operation out of the part. Because you're moving you're consolidating two operations within one fixturing setup.

Another benefit you'll get from this type of an approach is eliminating the setup and therefore you're reducing stack up error due to multiple setups. Plus you're getting more work done in a single setup.

Another illustration I wanted to show you is a method of consolidating operations in single part clamping. In this video you're seeing a right angle head. Actually it's a tooling approach to, or a solution to this particular application. But in a moment this large, right angle head will be put back into the automatic tool magazine and a long gun drilling tool will be picked up. This particular fixture has the ability to machine a compound and angle hole, all in the same clamping. By applying under pallet hydraulics, this machine is sitting inside a horizontal machining center. There you saw a tip action of the fixture and now you see this long tool going in for an oil hole.

And so as you can imagine you can consolidate operations, eliminate set ups because you can tip the fixture with hydraulic supply from underneath the pallet. This being a horizontal machining center you can actually index the part to a different angle with different orientations to the spindle. You can put in a compound angle hole in a single setting without the additional investment it would take to either get into a 5- axis machine application, or an additional machine where you'd have to move the part from one machine to another, which introduces waste into the process.