As industrial automation is coming out in force, there are faster and better ways to manufacture almost everything these days, however essential technologies and processes like workholding are being forgotten.
Advanced workholding is all about high throughput and cost effectiveness. A 5-axis milling machine worth a quarter million dollars is almost useless if you can’t get the parts in and out, killing cycle time. Engineers also fail to realize that there are more ways to clamp a part than they are aware, which needlessly intensifies the challenge.
Just some options include:
- Clamps
- One-Touch Clamps
- Side Clamps
- Hook Clamps
- Mandrels
- Plain Mandrels
- Step Mandrels
- Collar Mandrels
- Chucks
- Independent Chucks
- Self-Centering Chucks
- Collet Chucks
- Rests
- Steady Rests
- Follower Rests
- Plates
- Face Plates
- Angle Plates
This list is as superficial as it gets, with even more specialized options for each.
“For Mitee-Bite Products, it’s all about high-density workholding – using small clamps with greater holding force for low profile clamping,” said Tim Krafton, sales engineer at Mitee-Bite Products LLC.
Mitee-Bite provides a helping hand to engineers who are at a loss for what options are best for their application.
“Mitee-Bite offers free design consultation,” Krafton said. “We have a certificate program where customers can use that certificate for that consultation, we send out application pictures, we do CAD design work at no cost, depending on the application, to help customers understand how to hold their parts, other than using a vice.”
Unlike the complexity of many modern automation technologies, like robot end-effectors, Mitee-Bite’s workholding solutions harken back to a time with simpler, yet still effective solutions.
“We do offer hydraulic solutions to hold parts with a lot of our clamps, but we founded the business on very simple mechanical means to hold a part,” Krafton said. “We don’t have a lot of electronics that can go wrong. It’s a very simple, clean way to hold a part.”
To learn more about Mitee-Bites workholding solutions, watch the video above or visit www.miteebite.com.