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Haimer Shrink Fit Tooling PDF Print E-mail
Westec 2009
Written by Derek Goodwin   

Shrink Fit Tool Holders at Westec


If you have been wondering if shrink fit tooling (left) is right for you, you're not alone. I stopped by the Haimer booth at Westec and asked Haimer U.S.A. President Brendt Holden what it's all about.

Shrink fit tooling uses an inductive heating process to expand the bore of the tool holder, so that you can slip in a cutting tool, the next step is a 30 second cooling process that shrinks the tool holder around the shank of the tool, creating essentially a press fit, Just repeat the heating process to remove the tool.



The process is fast because there are two stations, heating and cooling, while the first tool is cooling, you are setting up the second tool. The Haimer shrink fit machine works with Haimer tool holders or any other brand, and has options, such as "coolant through tool", and coolant through holder, so that, even if the cutting tool is not a "coolant through" you can still direct coolant through the holder directly to the cutting flutes.

The advantages are:
  • Balance and Rigidity: 360 degree clamping torque
  • Accuracy: run out is between 20 millionths and .0001"
  • Reduced inventory: Less parts to track than a collet system
  • Speed: this setup is much faster than assembling collets and nuts and requires less cleaning
  • Consistency of setup: Operators are not torquing nuts to different settings, chips in holders are not an issue
Pricing starts on a limited machine at $4,900, the machine shown above with all the bells and whistles is around $16K

Presetting Tool Holders



This machine combines shrink fitting with a pre-setting height gage. The height gage has RS232 capability to output tool length offsets to a spreadsheet. The machine shown retails for around $20K

Pricing for the tool holders is competitive, about mid range between  solid tool holders and collet chucks. All in all, I was very impressed with the line.

I also like the company values. Haimer is based in Germany and manufactures all of it's products in a state of the art facility. Ten percent of revenues are redirected into Research and Development and the company hires approximately 30 apprentices per year, assuring that the next generation has the opportunity to develop Industry skills, with 200 employees currently, this represents 15% of the workforce in any given year. Good job Haimer, keep it up.
     


 

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