Bell-Everman Inc. has developed a compact, air-driven collet closer that can precisely secure cylindrical goods in the company’s rotary stages. The collet closer solves a common workholding problem in inspection, metrology and laser engraving applications.

This new collet closer squeezes into through-hole openings as small as 15 mm and extends just 42 mm from the face of the stage. The initial offering, “ER-16,” collet closer handles cylinders with diameters from 1 to 10 mm.

The collet closer has the ability to close without changing the workpiece’s axial position. It also offers the ability to customize the opening and clamping behavior: The same air cylinder that closes the collet can be set to open it, making it easy to set it up as a spring-close, air-open device. The collet closer can optionally be integrated with a single-axis controller to handle indexing tasks and process fourth-axis motion commands for contouring.

Bell-Everman has designed larger sizes that can accommodate cylindrical parts up to 30 mm in diameter and withstand higher side loads—opening up the possibility of some light CNC machining applications.