Video Tech Brief: Shrink-Fit Collets Explained

Shrink-fit collets can speed setups for CNC lathes that have live tooling stations while enabling those machines to perform more aggressive milling operations.

Manually measuring tool offsets is a time-consuming process. Haimer says it commonly takes 300 seconds per tool to measure a tool in a machine. Plus, when using a machine tool as the “presetter,” an expensive piece of equipment is not doing what it is supposed to be doing — making chips. The company says this time can be reduced by 70% using an offline tool presetter to automatically measure attributes such as tool height, diameter and runout.

Even entry-level presetters can support as many as 10 machine tools. In fact, Haimer has 140 machine tools in its 200,000-square-foot German manufacturing facility in Igenhausen, near Augsburg. In the main tool crib is

Haimer’s Power Clamp Preset i4.0 offers shrink-fit technology for ER collets for live-tool lathes. Photo Credit: Haimer USA

a Vio Linear full CNC tool presetter. However, when a tool breaks on a machine far from the tool crib, the operator can choose to use one of 10 Uno Smart tool presetters installed throughout the facility to change one tool rather than walking to the tool crib.

For live-tool lathes, presetting complements the company’s new line of shrink-fit collets that enable faster changeovers for those types of machines than conventional collets, too.

Learn more about shrink-fit technology for live-tool lathes in this article.