Widia recently announced a universal, high-precision collet chuck offering use in multiple applications (milling, drilling, reaming, and tapping), while maintaining runout accuracies of 0.003 mm (0.0001 inches) at 3xD.

 

The chuck features the ability to continue using standard ER collets while upgrading to precision collets, thicker chuck walls and a stronger outer form for added rigidity and lower vibration for longer spindle and tool life, and sealed-by-design precision collets (6-20 mm or 0.24 – 0.79 inches) for coolant delivery.

Aerospace, die/mold and other industries encounter high-strength, difficult-to-machine materials requiring high torques, feeds and forces. The danger of milling cutters being pulled out of the tool holder at these extreme forces has increased. This is at least true for tool holders that offer precision clamping with good concentricity such as shrink-fit. Such toolholders work with frictional locking, but their clamping force is often not sufficient for roughing.

 

In response, the new Widia universal precision collet is available with Safe-Lock pull-out protection from Haimer. Helical grooves are ground into the shank of the milling tool that, together with the respective pin drivers in the chuck, prevent the tool from spinning or being pulled out of the holder altogether under extreme machining conditions. The helical path of the Safe-Lock grooves also allows for adjusting tool length, meaning tools can be reground and pre-set as usual.