Alongside its automation systems for machine tools, available from workholding, productivity improvement and manufacturing efficiency specialist Leader Chuck International, ZERO CLAMP also offers a new, matching clamping device for handling component blanks and raw billet material.
The pneumatic centring clamping fixture 160 offers powerful, infinitely variable clamping with forces of up to 45 kN at a maximum of 9 bar of compressed air. The compressed air supply is connected to the underside of the clamp. The centring clamping fixture is controlled using the four-channel clamping pots of the company’s advanced zero-point clamping system. Alternatively, the air ports on the side can also be used for this task.
What makes the centring clamping fixture unique is the system’s low pretension of 60 kg, which ‘lightly’ holds loaded material preventing the loss of clamped components when working with shuttle tables, for example, moving in and out of the machining envelope.
In addition to this, the generous clamping jaw stroke of 8.5 mm can be infinitely ‘fine-tuned’ with adjustment slots in the top of each jaw allowing a range of +/- 5 mm each side via the eight Allen head bolts that securely fix the top jaws to the vice. This increases the service life of the jaws as they can be accurately adjusted to compensate for any wear as well as for any deviation in the size of the raw material, such as castings being undersized.
The extensive range of jaw attachments, including grip jaws, carbide-coated jaws, profiled jaws or prism jaws to suit the workpiece, allows the centring clamping fixture to achieve clamping widths of 10 to 130 mm, making it suitable for a huge variety of applications.
Managing Director of Leader Chuck, Mark Jones, says: “For many engineering workshops the highly effective solutions available from ZERO CLAMP make it a one-stop shop for everything – from zero-point clamping systems and modular clamping rail systems to perhaps the most flexible, modular automation on the market. Everything a manufacturing business needs, from a single source.”