Move over dumb chucks and vacuous vises: The next generation of smart, communicative, and modular workholding solutions is on its way
My 2021 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup has sensors that tell me when the tires need air. The truck’s computer corrects the wheel if I deviate from my lane, slams on the brakes when I’m about to hit something, and warns me if the vehicle is about to tip over. There’s much more information available, all digital and most of which I can beam onto the Ram’s head-up display. By these standards, the workholding on a typical CNC machine tool today is on par with a 1985 Ford Granada.
Why can’t vises, fixtures, and chucks have the same capabilities as a modern motor vehicle? Why can’t they phone a friend when maintenance is due or give an urgent shout-out that a part’s about to go flying? If Larry Robbins has anything to say about it, they soon will. As the president of SMW Autoblok Corp.’s Commercial Division in Wheeling, Ill., Robbins is on a mission to make workholding smarter, more flexible, increasingly modular, and above all, electrically powered.
I spoke with Robbins in late 2020 about what was then a new contactless inductive coupler system. The article was on modular workholding and he had plenty to say about the subject, but it was SMW Autoblok’s MM electromechanical four-jaw chuck that had Robbins most worked up. He stated then that the ability to control and monitor each jaw would give shops “an enormous increase in flexibility, quality, and operational safety,” which is why the company had decided to open a new division—SMW-Electronics—in Meckenbeuren, Germany, to pursue the technology.
Robbins remains every bit as energized as he was in 2020. “No other workholding manufacturer has this technology,” he said. “Using non-contact, electric power to move clamps and actuate vises and chucks represents the future of workholding and will one day replace traditional hydraulic and pneumatic systems, probably sooner than any of us anticipate. Given that our industry has long been slow to adopt new technology—especially here in the United States—all of us at SMW have been pleasantly surprised with its reception.”
One organization entirely on board with the e-motion concept is the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center Research and Development (OMIC R&D), with whom Robbins was soon planning to meet about increasing its use of electric workholding. Two years ago, the campus engaged in a project sponsored by SMW Autoblok to develop an interface for robotic end effectors. As with the other products in the e-motion lineup, these are expected to support power and data transmission via an inductive coupling, simplifying robot and cobot use for manufacturers while opening the door to more advanced capabilities such as automatic adjustment of clamping force and jaw position based on real-time feedback from the workholding system.
“Currently, you still need a human to make those decisions,” said Robbins. “For example, even with today’s high-low hydraulic clamping systems for CNC lathes, we require that the machine is either in deceleration or totally stopped before reducing pressure. It will be the same basic idea with electrics except we’ll be able to do so much more quickly, which is something we’re working on right now. Beyond that, I anticipate future systems will have force sensors that can detect part distortion, automatically slow the machine down, reduce pressure, and then return to the machining operation.”
Robbins is quick to point out that SMW Autoblok continues to expand its mechanical workholding offering. Recent product introductions include the ZeroAct lineup of zero-point clamping modules, and its new GT5-2G five-axis quick-change vise, both of which were on display at this year’s IMTS. As were numerous products from Hainbuch America Corp., Germantown, Wis., among them the centroteX AC (Automated Change) line of chucks and mandrels, as well as the company’s system of interchangeable jaw modules, clamping heads, and other workholding components.
Allan Dopf is Hainbuch America’s national sales manager. Like Robbins, he’s proud of the industry’s continued push toward modular, easy-to-use tooling systems. And Dopf is equally enthusiastic about Industry 4.0 and the rise of IIoT-capable smart workholding. He recently participated in a Shop Matters podcast with Wade Anderson of Okuma, during which he described the company’s TOPlus IQ chuck.
IQ-equipped chucks and mandrels, he explained, contain wireless sensors that can monitor clamping force, spindle speeds, operating temperature, and other machining variables, but go one step further with in-process measurement of the workpiece’s inside and outside diameters. The IQ can send this information to a mobile device or data collection system and also to the machine control for making on-the-fly process adjustments, without the need for human intervention. This assures trouble-free, lights-out operation, and when used with the aforementioned centroteX AC workholding system, supports automatic, unattended changeover.
Said Dopf, “You know the meeting that most shops have each morning where everyone stands around the whiteboard and tries to figure out what happened during the night? With IQ, you already have that information on your cell phone. You know how many parts were made and if there was any scrap. You can see whether there was any vibration during the roughing cycle, or that the workpiece diameter changed suddenly at 3:04 in the morning and the machine had to adjust the clamping force because of it. It captures all workholding-related events in real time, then sends them to the control, a TV monitor, or whatever external device you wish for action.”
Of course, there’s more to any machining story than workholding. Dopf noted that machine shops should implement additional monitoring strategies, such as those available for cutting tools and toolholders. “Information is power,” he said. “These types of Industry 4.0 capabilities allow you to better predict maintenance needs, for instance, or determine when a process is less stable than it should be and needs corrective action. Conversely, you might identify areas for improvement that would otherwise remain undetectable. Simply put, these solutions reduce scrap and downtime while increasing productivity and part quality, with ROI often measured in months, not years. Why wouldn’t a shop want to invest in them?”
David Vilcek offered much the same analysis on the benefits of Industry 4.0 but added predictive maintenance to the list. The product engineering manager for power workholding, assembly and handling technology at Roemheld North America, Fenton, Mo., a sister company to Carr Lane Manufacturing Co. in nearby St. Louis, Vilcek pointed out several products that fall into the smart but modular workholding arena.
One example is the ASH series of hydraulic, sensor-equipped, long-stroke vises (up to 200 mm, or nearly eight inches). Here, an operator can program various workpiece dimensions into the control unit and the vise will automatically adjust the opening to fit. The ASH also boasts force sensing capabilities, and self-activating quick-change jaws for unattended machining.
In addition, Roemheld plans to introduce its STARK intelligence brand of digital zero-point clamping technology at IMTS 2022. Vilcek described it as having a modular design, with each chuck containing an integrated sensor box that communicates with an IO-Link master unit via cable, inductive coupler, or Ethernet Fieldbus. Three sizes are available, all providing information on clamping pressure, temperature, number of cycles, fault status, and position. “There’s also an option for an RFID interface, so you know precisely what type of palette or workpiece is sitting on top of the zero-point system,” he said.
Vilcek noted that zero-point systems use hydraulic pressure to open the chuck but contain clamping springs that become fatigued over time. By monitoring the clamp and unclamp times as well as the number of cycles, STARK intelligence can accurately predict when the chuck will need maintenance, thus avoiding expensive and unexpected downtime. He also discussed Roemheld’s line of 24-volt DC electric swing clamps, which were initially designed for wet machining environments but, because they don’t require compressed air or hydraulic fluid, see wide use in clean rooms, inspection labs, and even the entertainment industry for stage design, giving new meaning to the term “grip” technician.
In one recent application, a German automaker used electric clamps in a workholding fixture that effectively doubled as a quality-control system. “They needed a way to check for variation in these large aluminum castings for the vehicle subframe, so we integrated strain gauge sensors and load cells into the swing arms,” Vilcek said. “This allows the automaker to measure clamping pressure and stroke position within about 0.1-mm accuracy, so they can sense whether the casting is out of tolerance or out of position and stop the machine based on that feedback.”
Erowa Technology Inc. is another provider of smart workholding solutions. Chris Norman, president and COO of the Arlington Heights, Ill.-based company, noted that the Erowa MTS (Modular Tooling System) zero-point system was introduced in 2001, while the intelligent version—the MTS 4.0 Smart Chuck—was released at IMTS 2018. The latter includes wireless communications and the ability to continuously monitor clamping force, status, and proximity.
“The MTS 4.0 base plate uses two compressed air lines to clamp four zero-point chucks simultaneously,” said Norman. “If the system senses a problem such as movement or vibration in any one of them, it will signal the machine to stop the cycle. Of course, we also collect data during the machining process, which can be displayed on the machine control or sent to an external system, our JMS ProductionLine software, or even a smartphone.”
He added that more and more customers are embracing Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology, and that MTS 4.0 is only a small part of Erowa’s commitment to supporting them in this endeavor—a quick look at the company’s website confirms this, revealing the words Smart Factory and a comprehensive system labeled the FMC, short for Flexible Manufacturing Concept.
MTS 4.0 is Erowa’s first foray into IIoT-capable workholding, but according to Norman, the company has been practicing the FMC philosophy for more than three decades. “Between our measuring and presetting solutions, our robots and loading systems, and especially our JMS software that ties everything together, Erowa can support the entire manufacturing process, and do so in an integrated, automated fashion,” he said.
“This is the essence of Industry 4.0 and the IIoT, Norman asserted. “So while MTS 4.0 might be our first smart workholding device, you can be sure it won’t be our last.”
Cleveland-based Jergens Inc., has been known for its line of modular workholding and fixturing products since its inception in 1942. These include the company’s zero-point and ball-lock mounting hardware, subplates, risers and pallets, production vises and power clamping systems, many of which offer quick-change capabilities.
General Manager Matt Schron, however, is the first to admit that none should be considered “smart” by today’s standards. “We’ve had pneumatic and magnetic part-sensing capabilities in some of our workholding products for many years, but that’s nowhere near as advanced as some of the technology that’s now available. That said, we recognize the need for smarter, more automated systems and have a team looking at this right now.”
Jergens is also working on another project, one that more U.S. companies should emulate: implementing a machine tool monitoring system and using the resulting data to improve the manufacturing processes. “It tracks everything,” said Schron. “Whether a CNC machine is in-cycle or out-of-cycle, what jobs are active, reasons why a machine is down—such as a missing gage or material. It also alerts supervisors as to what actions are needed, so we can ensure that equipment doesn’t sit idle any longer than necessary.”
The “it” in this case is Merlin Tempus, a smart manufacturing software platform from Ontario-based Memex Inc. that Jergens began implementing about three years ago. Unfortunately, the pandemic has slowed the progress, and it wasn’t until late last year that Schron and his project team were able to gather a full head of steam. “There’s still a fair amount of testing and configuring yet to do, so we’re currently only monitoring around one-third of our machines, but we’re already seeing some significant improvements,” he said. “Merlin gives the people on the shop floor the tools they need to be successful, while it gives me and the other managers greater visibility to all that’s going on out there. It’s a great tool.”
None of this surprises Memex president and CEO David McPhail. “Jergens is by no means unique,” he said. “The Merlin platform provides access to quantifiable manufacturing data, which is critical to developing repeatable processes. And when operators and managers have the tools needed to marshal and manage the resources within that process, good things happen. We’ve seen some customers increase their productivity up to 40 percent after implementation, a figure that’s sure to go up as more companies begin offering smart workholding and similar IIoT-capable tooling. It’s like finding a hidden factory.”
Connect With Us
