Zone: Workholding

Cold Clamping For Small, Delicate Parts

ice workholding turning Icing plates use the adhesive power of ice to securely clamp parts of virtually limitless shapes and materials for milling and turning operations.

Read Complete Article

Get Better Before You Get Bigger

indexer Rather than making a major new machine tool purchase just yet, this shop is finding additional capacity on the equipment it already has. What once was a vertical machining center will become a flexible automated production center for unattended machining.

Read Complete Article

Research Further:

Browse This Zone By Type:

All | Article (48) | Case Study (14) | Article with Video (2)

Search This Zone: Go

Most Recent Content in this Zone:

Change This Chuck: Save Setup Time
11/19/2009 Production Machining: Quick change workholding is one way shops are reducing setup when dealing with higher-mix/ lower-voulme work.
Industrial Supplier Aids Job Shop’s Lean Efforts
11/9/2009 Modern Machine Shop: As a small shop, Cross Paths Corporation relies on outside help to maintain a lean, efficient working environment. With fast deliveries of needed products, a free CAD library and a focus on customer service, Reid Supply Company helps the shop keep inventories low and maintain its focus on producing quality parts for customers.
Proper Workholding Selection
9/18/2009 Production Machining: An in-depth look at the overall application is the best way to determine the most suitable workholding for a job. Experienced workholding engineers can play an important role in the selection process.
Collets Offer Quality Consistency
9/17/2009 Production Machining: Quality consistency is a crucial characteristic to have for a shop to succeed. Producing such work for customers requires quality consistency inside the shop as well, including everything from shop management to the machines’ tooling and workholding.
Getting Concept To Car Faster
9/14/2009 Modern Machine Shop: Joe Gibbs Racing applies a number of workholding techniques to speed the production of racing components its engineering team creates every day.

View More Content in This Zone | RSS

Overview Of:
Workholding

Workholding refers to any device that is used to a secure a workpiece and hold it in place against the forces of machining. The most basic workholding device is a simple clamp that is screwed into place on a machining center’s table, but workholding can also involve complex fixtures that are custom-built for particular parts. Other common workholding devices include vises and chucks, as well as indexers or rotary tables that are able to change the part’s position while it is held, so the machine can reach various features of the part without the setup having to be changed.

In most machining applications, workholding also locates the part. In turning, for example, a chuck not only holds the part securely but also holds it precisely on the centerline of the spindle. On a machining center, the vise or fixture that holds the part may also hold it in the precise position and orientation where the machining program expects to find it. For this reason, components such as locating pins and workstops that make it easy to place piece after piece in the same location are also common workholding components.