Headline Filters in Aylesford, a manufacturer of industrial filters mainly serving the global oil and gas industry, has upgraded its prismatic machining capabilities with the installation on one of its machining centres of a compact, electrically-actuated clamping system from
OK-Vise.
Made in Finland, OK-Vise’s products are available in the UK from
1st Machine Tool Accessories.
The RM-500 workholding arrangement has been retrofitted to a 4th CNC axis trunnion mounted on the bed of a Brother Speedio R650 30-taper machining centre. High precision and flexibility are central to operations at Headline Filters, which produces filter housings from 316 stainless steel, 6082 aluminium, exotic alloys, brass or plastic destined for predominantly oil rigs and gas analysers around the world.
A high-torque version of the electrically-actuated RM-500 fixturing setup was chosen for the seamless integration of automated clamping, avoiding the expense and complexity of retrofitting fluid lines. Indexing of the trunnion and operation of the clamps are managed via a dedicated electrical control box mounted on the right side of the machine guarding.
Engineering manager Jason Rose noted: " We decided to introduce automated fixturing when we bought the Brother machine, but we did not order it with any hydraulic or pneumatic clamping facilities. The easier and less costly solution was to opt for an electrical system from OK-Vise. It has proved to be a very effective workholding solution."
Built around the Finnish company’s versatile Multi-Rail architecture, the RM-500 base rail features a rigid, 44mm x 50mm profile with precise serrations on top at 2.5mm intervals along its length. Matching serrations at the same pitch on the underside of OK-Vise fixture modules provide positive, accurate location and are able to withstand retention forces up to 60kN.
There is thus no need to rely on friction to secure workholding modules once they are in position. Multiple fixtures, depending on their size, can be positioned quickly and securely along the rail, which in this application is 500mm in length.
To meet its exacting production standards and avoid marking or damaging components, Headline Filters manufactures custom soft jaws in-house designed to securely retain cylindrical or irregularly-shaped workpieces, without degrading their surface.
In operation, a central, low-profile, double-wedge clamp from OK-Vise is tightened automatically by an electric drive. It causes the sides to expand horizontally to hold two components simultaneously against adjacent fixed jaws positioned either side of the expanding wedge. If needed for secondary adjustments or manual setups, it may alternatively be tightened or loosened by hand using an Allen key.
Pic: The OK-Vise RM-500 Multi-Rail workholding system securing a pair of round plastic parts