Holding the Small Stull - You have to hold it to make it

摘要

One commonly heard comment from machinists is that more than 80% of the parts manufactured in this country are palm size or smaller. And led by the medical and electronic industries, the trend is to ever-smaller products. One of the basic problems with small-part manufacture is how to hang onto parts during the manufacturing process. Here's a look at how several manufacturers have provided an answer. The smallest chuck made by Kitagawa for NorthTech Workholding is a 4" (102-mm) PU pull back chuck that can hold parts as small as 10 mm in diam. "This chuck has 0.0004" [0.01-mm] repeatability," explains Bill Graham. "In all small part applications, part deformation is a major concern, particularly when working with delicate parts with tight tolerances." NorthTech's solution is often the Kitagawa PU series pull back chuck with custom engineered top tooling. Gripping small work-pieces with the PU is done with jaws that move both radially and along the Z axis to grip the part. This allows for length control and a grip that is full contact around the part with more pressure points.