Brighter benefits for chuck operations

By re-designing product lines, the complete range will now have a uniform appearance and simultaneously offer added value for customers by adopting intelligent design strategies. Until now, industrial product design has played a less significant role during the development of chucks at Mapal with the focus primarily on reliable functionality.

As a result, developers have gradually built up a broad portfolio that didn’t have a uniform appearance. To improve this situation, Mapal involved experts from an award-winning design agency in Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany.

The remit was to revise the appearance of the chucks whilst adding value for the customer by means of carefully considered industrial design input. So why is Mapal doing this? According to the company an ingenious design is not only a visual highlight, it also taps into economic and ecological benefits for both the cutting tool manufacturer and its customer base.

Using this objective as a starting point, the product designers worked in synergy with product developers at Mapal, building completely new concepts that have been based on functional FEM analyses to improve performance, ergonomics and economy for end users.

Developed according to this design brief, the new chucks have a significantly improved appearance. One of the elements in the new concept is a gleaming surface finish – due to a specially developed polishing method that ensures the chucks are more resistant to corrosion than previous versions.

A further design requirement was fool-proof-handling; in other words creating something that facilitates the simple and self-explanatory handling of chucks. Design input was needed so customers can quickly identify the chuck of choice with handling information also being self-explanatory.

These requirements were addressed through the introduction ‘blue coloured’ features such as the actuating screws on a hydraulic chuck and by internally developed symbols that contain corresponding information, that is conveyed to the end user irrespective of language.

Finally, the product and design engineers studied and optimised the chucks by undertaking a complete review of their weight, material selection and size. The new design addresses the requirements for the greatest possible stability and vibration dampening characteristics. Even the smallest weight saving on chucks has a major impact that becomes apparent over time. A lightweight chuck will consume less energy during acceleration and deceleration of the spindle.

With a new corporate design theme, the complete clamping range can now be immediately identified as stemming from the Mapal stable. This is of critical importance for the company, as historically it has not been so well-known as a manufacturer of chucks.

Mapal www.mapal.com