Product category:
Chucks and collets for rotational work
News Release from: Crawford Collets | Subject: Special collets
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 23 September 2004
Latest CNC wire EDM speeds special
collet supply
While thousands of standard round bore R8 collets are held in stock, the more specialised types had a longer lead time, until now, when a manufacturer uses latest CNC wire EDM to speed deliveries.
To help overcome the delays which users of more unusual collets can experience, Crawford Collets has installed a new Fanuc Alpha 1ic wire cut machine to further reduce the lead times There is an almost infinite variety of collets, for instance Crawfords holds over 33,000 different collets at any one time
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 6 Sep 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Commonly used collets are readily available from stock because the steady demand permits continual economic production.
This is not possible for more unusual collets: the significantly lower demand means that economic manufacture is more challenging.
To address this problem, Crawfords has installed the new wire cut machine within its precision grinding facility, opened last October.
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Director/General Manager Peter Simms said "Where customers can advise us of forward schedules, we build for and hold stock in readiness for call-off.
The new machine will allow us to significantly reduce lead times for the more unusual bore patterns, such as square or hexagonal.
"The Fanuc Alpha 1ic allows us to efficiently re-machine a standard round bore to become either a larger diameter or different bore pattern.
With many operations required to manufacture a collet, a typical collet requires eight weeks in manufacture.
Throughout the past twelve months, since Crawford Collets' manufacturing facility was combined in Halifax with that of Pratt Burnerd International, we have created the largest stockholding of collets available anywhere in the world.
We can now readily supply frequently used collets from stock but the more unusual variants may be on longer lead times, depending on the production schedule.
The new machine will significantly improve this situation because we can interrupt the production schedules more easily and economically.
Whilst these variants may not always be available from stock we will be able to manufacture and deliver on very short schedules." The Fanuc Alpha 1ic, purchased from the 600 Centre in Loughborough, was selected because of the exceptionally fast wire feed rate, which means set up time is minimized between collets, the high precision and the AC power requirement, which prevents rusting on the workpiece during machining.
The wire feed rate is controlled according to the number of effective discharge pulses per unit of time.
This keeps the cutting energy uniform, preventing wire breakage and therefore permitting high speed cutting: 0.25mm dia brass wire can be fed at 250mm2/min to give a roundness within 1.2 micron and a high quality surface finish (surface roughness of 0.7micron Ry).
Semms said: "The machine is ideal for our needs.
It ensures that we can continue to manufacture to the exceptional accuracy and finish that is required for high precision collets whilst reducing the lead times on the less common variants.
Although we are the largest manufacturer of collets in Europe, and carry the largest stockholding anywhere in the world, we constantly endeavour to maintain and improve our position.
The Fanuc machine is just the latest in an investment programme designed to ensure that we can deliver what the customer wants, when he wants it." 1.
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