德国HWR INOFlex® 卡盘应用技术分享
一个扣人心弦的成功
Andreas Meier Zerspanungstechnik (a-m-z) 公司成立于 1996 年，在castings 和flame-cut parts的高精度加工方面迅速确立了自己的地位。公司拥有车削和铣削能力，在客户中享有盛誉。
a-m-z在其制造业生涯的早期就知道自己想开一家机械加工厂。当这位年轻的企业家将这一梦想变为现实时，他很快意识到工件夹具需要大量的关注。
年轻公司面临的主要挑战
a-m-z 的工作范围很广，需要灵活使用机器，因此需要许多不同的夹紧装置，包括双爪、三爪和四爪卡盘。这就产生了巨大的购置成本，并经常导致较长的安装和更换时间。与此同时，该公司还为所有未装夹在卡盘中的工件定制夹具，从而增加了成本。早期，由于订单规模小，很难实现生产和盈利。
由于使用三爪卡盘会导致薄壁件变形，该公司在某些零件的工件质量方面也遇到了困难。而使用四爪卡盘时，毛坯公差有时会导致过度补偿。在最极端的情况下，这会导致四个卡爪中只有两个卡爪夹住零件。在这种情况下，不稳定的夹持条件导致表面质量差，切削条件不经济。同时，在工件和卡爪之间使用补偿板导致更换时间过长，使生产率降至不可接受的水平。
Andreas Meier 解释说：“在加工过程中，工件甚至会从卡盘中脱落，这对一些机床造成了严重损坏”。
无法令人满意地解决工件夹持问题
即使是重复性的零件订单，也要根据半成品的质量，采用完全不同的技术进行单独运行。车间还必须保持灵活性，以处理铝、不锈钢、炮弹金属、黄铜、铸钢和铸铁铸件以及钢的切割件。这种苛刻的环境给操作公司混合数控车床、四轴和五轴加工中心的员工带来了巨大的挑战。
Andreas Meier 在参观汉诺威欧洲机床展（EMO）时发现了 INOFlex® 卡盘，从而使事情发生了转机。这种卡盘解决了 a-m-z 一直面临的加工难题，包括毛坯公差变化、柔性轮廓、夹持变形斜面和flamed-out edges，以及夹持变形敏感元件。
INOFlex® 在复杂的钳工操作中表现出色
a-m-z 购买的第一个 HWR 产品是 315 mm INOFlex®VK 四爪动力卡盘。该产品一投入使用，公司就认识到了它的实质性改进。由于 INOFlex® 卡盘的所有卡爪无论坯料尺寸或公差如何都能以相同的力抓取，因此使用新卡盘处理第一件工作的循环时间从 18 分钟降至 9 分钟。尽管切削力增大，但减少的摆动倾斜确保了表面质量的提高。此外，该部件特别容易变形，使用 INOFlex® 后，同心度提高了 9 倍。
巩固优势产品
INOFlex® 的优势显而易见后，a-m-z 停止了对两爪和三爪卡盘的投资。与三爪卡盘相比，使用 INOFlex® 无需更换卡盘即可实现两爪抓取，并能在更短的设置时间内夹紧零件。HWR 的补偿夹持卡盘技术减少了所需的夹爪数量，从而降低了设备成本。随着 315 毫米卡盘优势的显现，a-m-z 还投资购买了用于加工小型零件的 INOFlex® 210 毫米卡盘。
Andreas Meier 说：“如果十年前就有 INOFlex® 卡盘，我的公司就不会再有两爪、三爪或四爪卡盘，每台车床都会安装 INOFlex®”。
A gripping success
Founded in 1996, Andreas Meier Zerspanungstechnik (a-m-z) quickly established a position providing high-precision machining of castings and flame-cut parts. The company maintains both turning and milling capabilities and has achieved a reputation for excellence among its customers.
From early in his manufacturing career, Andreas Meier knew he wanted to start a machine shop. As the young entrepreneur made this dream a reality, he quickly realized that workholding would require significant attention.
MAJOR CHALLENGES FOR THE YOUNG COMPANY
The wide range of work tackled by a-m-z required flexible use of machines, which created a need for many different clamping devices, including two-, three- and four-jaw chucks. This created significant acquisition costs and frequently resulted in long setup and changeover times. Simultaneously, the company produced custom fixturing for everything not clamped in a chuck, resulting in additional costs. Early on, small order sizes made it difficult to achieve productive and profitable manufacturing.
The company also had difficulty with workpiece quality on some parts, as use of three-jaw chucks would lead to polygonal deformation. Yet with four-jaw chucks, the blank tolerances sometimes resulted in overcompensation. In the most extreme cases, this resulted in only two of the four chucks gripping the component. The unstable clamping conditions in those situations led to poor surface quality and uneconomic cutting conditions. At the same time, the use of compensating plates between the component and jaw resulting in lengthy changeover times that lowered productivity to unacceptable levels.
“Components were even ripped out of the chuck during machining”, explains Andreas Meier, “which caused substantial damage to some machines.”
GRIPPING THE WORKPIECES COULD NOT BE SATISFACTORILY SOLVED
Even with recurring part orders, individual runs were performed with completely different technology depending on the semi-manufactured part quality. The shop also had to maintain the flexibility to work with castings of aluminum, stainless steel, gun metal, brass, cast steel and cast iron, as well as steel flame-cut parts. This demanding environment created significant challenges for the employees operating the company’s mix of CNC lathes and 4-axis and 5-axis machining centers.
Things took a turn for the positive when Andreas Meier discovered the INOFlex® chuck when visiting the EMO in Hanover. This chuck solved the exact machining challenges that a-m-z had been facing, including variation in blank tolerances, flexible contours, gripping deformed inclines and flamed-out edges, and clamping deformation-sensitive components.
INOFlex® EXCELS IN COMPLEX CLAMPING OPERATIONS
The first HWR product acquired by a-m-z was a 315-mm INOFlex®VK four-jaw power chuck. As soon as it went into operation, the company recognized substantial improvements. Because all jaws of the INOFlex® chuck grip with the same force regardless of the blank size or tolerances, cycle time dropped from 18 to 9 minutes for the first job processed with the new chuck. The reduced inclination to oscillations ensured improved surface quality despite higher cutting forces. Additionally, this component in particular was susceptible to deformation and the use of INOFlex® improved concentricity by a factor of 9.
CONSOLIDATING ON A SUPERIOR PRODUCT
Once the benefits of INOFlex® were evident, a-m-z ceased investing in two-jaw and three-jaw chucks. With INOFlex®, two-jaw gripping is possible without a chuck change and parts can be clamped with shorter setup times than with a three-jaw chuck. HWR’s compensating gripping chuck technology reduced the number of clamping jaws required, leading to lower equipment costs. As the benefits of the 315-mm chuck were realized, a-m-z also invested in the INOFlex® 210-mm chuck for the machining of small parts.
“If the INOFlex® chuck had been available ten years ago, I would no longer have any two, three or four-jaw chucks in the company and each lathe would be fitted out with INOFlex®”, states Andreas Meier.
