Tenon gets a grip on machining efficiency with Lang workholding

Tenon Engineering enjoys a global reputation for its high-precision manufacturing capabilities.

In addition to serving an international scientific equipment client base, the Dorking, Surrey- based business counts companies involved in similarly demanding technical sectors as loyal customers.

Approximately 80% of Tenon Engineering’s output is exported to major markets in the USA, Asia, Africa and Europe. Along with its high-precision subcontract work the business also manufactures for its sister company, Wallace Instruments, a global leader in the quality assurance testing of rubber, plastics and other materials.

Given the nature of the sectors it serves, and the critical functions that much of its output is designed to perform, quality, accuracy, efficiency and reliability are central to the business’ ethos. To help ensure that these values are adhered to, Tenon has a wide range of in-house resources at its disposal including multi-axis machining, cylindrical grinding, precision sheetmetal fabrication, assembly and coil winding, alongside electrical motor manufacture.

The company’s machining facility houses a variety of CNC machine tools including a range of Dugard lathes and several multi-axis machining centres. As the business’ machine tools are normally involved in performing the low volume production of high precision parts, to help minimise job changeover times and reduce non-productive periods, Tenon Engineering’s chief engineer, Terry Healy searched for a suitably efficient workholding system. The answer was found in a Lang pre-stamping unit along with a collection of Lang Technik Makro grip vices.

Mr Healy explains: ”Our capabilities and engineering expertise, from the design and development of prototypes to all aspects of manufacturing means that we can provide innovative solutions across a multitude of industries.

“Our international customer base includes companies involved in the scientific instrumentation, materials testing equipment, aviation, medical instrumentation and quality control analysis sectors. The nature of our customers means that our machine tools are generally employed in high-value, relatively short machining runs.

“Consequently, with the intention of cutting the times lost in job changeovers and increasing our machining efficiencies, we invested in Lang Technik’s pre-stamping technology and Makro grip vices.

“The use of Lang’s workholding systems on our machines has achieved our objective of significantly speeding-up our job changeover times and increasing machining efficiency. Much of the work involved in setting-up the next job on a particular machine tool can now be done while the current machining task is still being performed.

“Now, within the cycle time of an existing job, our staff use the stamping unit to make high-precision, small indentations into the next workpiece blank to be machined. Then, when the prepared workpiece is clamped into one of the Makro-grip vices, the features on the jaws engage precisely with the workpiece’s pre-stamped indentations. By using this arrangement, we are able to achieve outstanding holding power while only needing to apply minimal clamping forces.”

He continues: “The Lang system’s reduced holding pressure requirement ensures that, under all machining conditions, we are able to securely clamp from the softest to the hardest of materials without worrying about the component deforming or the vice loosening its grip under high machining loads. An added advantage is that the stamping unit makes its indentations into just the last 3mm of each workpiece blanks, so we are now also making savings on material.”

The many benefits gained from the use of Lang Technik pre-stamping technology and Makro grip vices has ensured that the system has become a benchmark clamping method for ultra-secure 5-axis machining.

The toothed jaws of conventional vices must perform two distinct roles – in addition to indenting the workpiece material, they must also securely hold it under all machining loads. Commonly used vices are only able to exert a maximum pressure of approximately four to six tons and as a result the effective penetration of their jaws into workpiece material can be problematic, especially when clamping harder metals.

Also, to ensure that the workpiece is adequately pierced, a vice’s teeth must remain sharp to be effective but as they’re exposed to high levels of torque and wear when in use, their clamping ability inevitably declines. As a result, when using conventional vices during the machining of soft, distortion prone materials, the jaws’ teeth also tend to lose their holding power and work free from workpieces when under machining forces.

The use of Lang’s stamping technology overcomes these issues by applying up to 20 tons of pressure during the pre-stamping of workpieces which guarantees the creation of precise indentations, even when applied to the hardest of materials.

Following pre-stamping, as the teeth of Makro Grip vices engage exactly with the pre-stamped indents, only relatively low clamping pressure is required to hold the workpiece securely. In addition, the truncated pyramidal shapes of the pre-stamped indents prevent the vice’s teeth from moving deeper into the workpiece material by providing a defined penetration limit.

Despite the application of comparatively low clamping pressure, the holding forces exerted on workpieces held in Makro Grip vices actually become greater the harder and more resistant the material being machined is. Moreover, as workpieces are prepared before being loaded into the machine tool, users’ machine downtime is significantly reduced.

Lang Technik
www.lang-technik.co.uk

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Lang Technik

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