tooling & workholding
New system takes the strain
WITH batch sizes varying from one offs to 5,000, employees at Goodturn
Engineering found the tightening and releasing of its workholding vices
tiresome and repetitive - until the introduction of the MicroLoc 75-Series
Power Workholding System. The Redditch based subcontractor’s four
Haas CNC machining centres manufacture anything from floating candles
used in a well known film to parts for classic cars/motorcycles, health and
aerospace industries. The milling section that came under scrutiny when
regular batches from a few hundred to a couple of thousand parts gave the
shopfloor staff difficulty with continually clamping components.
Goodturn director Philip Eaves comments: ‘We were operating vices
like many manufacturers, but it wasn’t feasible with our regular batch
production, so we visited the MACH show in 2006 and found MicroLoc
and in particular their MicroLoc 75 Series Power Station. The benefits were
explained to us and we were initially sceptical, but we could see the
potential benefits and decided to invest. We bought two systems and now,
we wish we made the move sooner as the system has been a revelation to
our company and the benefits have been remarkable.’
The immediate benefit was an improvement in component accuracy
and repeatability. This arises from case-hardened jaws ground to ±10
microns relative to the tenon keys; base plates which hold a system
repeatability accuracy of ±25 microns over a one metre length; vice stops
and more recently purpose made jaws for specific projects. Also, continues
Eaves, there was immediate impact on productivity: ‘We save at least one
days production each week credit to the MicroLoc system. The new
system is a case of hitting a button to tighten and loosen a part from the
jaws and the time this saves in comparison to manually tightening and
Boneham and Turner Ltd
the precision engineers...
HSS and HSS-CO twist drills with split points
Call or email now for a catalogue
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58 MWP july 2008
loosening a vice handle is remarkable.
‘Fatigue is also an issue with regard to health and safety and this was
something we were aware of. As a small company with 8 employees, the
directors also work on the shop floor and appreciate the strain caused by
loosening and tightening vices all day long. With RSI common in the
workplace we wanted to stamp out any possibility of this - the MicroLoc
has solved this issue.’ continues Eaves. A related issue is inconsistency of
pressure when clamping parts. As staff becomes strained and tired, the
effort exerted on a manual vice may fall throughout the day whereas the
MicroLoc maintains a consistent clamping pressure every time. With an
adjustable clamping pressure up to 1.25 tonnes (350bar), the MicroLoc is
as comfortable clamping hard material components that demand heavy
intermittent machining as it is with holding delicate plastic parts without
causing marking. www.microloc.com
TALBOT TOOL COMPANY LIMITED
GRIP WORKS CROWHURST ROAD BRIGHTON SUSSEX
TEL: 01273 508881 • FAX: 01273 540544
www.talbot-tool.co.uk
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