Heat-shrink tool/toolholder technology is well proven and widely used in the aerospace and mould and die sector, but the process really came to the fore in 2000 in the German and American auto industry for transfer line and flex-line type machining installations, according to Juergen Meyer, milling specialist at LMT (UK), Coventry. The adoption was in response to the trend to ensure predictable performance of the equipment and processes, in order to maximise spindle utilisation, process reliability and machine uptime. So, along with tool pre-setting, it rapidly gained acceptance to ensure that minimal production time was lost due to tool changing and also that maximum rigidity was maintained in the tool to spindle assembly.
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