The document discusses two cases where switching toolholder systems improved machining productivity and tool life. In the first case, an automotive manufacturer switched from a hydraulic to a Fahrion Centro P toolholder for machining a truck steering component. This doubled tool life from 400 to 800 cycles. In the second case, an aerospace supplier switched to the Rego-Fix powRgrip system to improve consistency, balance, and vibration damping for high-speed machining of small precision parts in various difficult materials.

1. August 2015 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 69
ToolHolders
Picking the Right Toolholder
for the Toughest Jobs
APN Inc. has located its
powRgrip tool-changing unit
near the cells of high-speed,
high-performance three and
five-axis machining centers. One
employee is in charge of setting up
the Rego-Fix tooling, though all of the
shop’s machinists know the system and
will change their own tooling if necessary.
Jim Lorincz
Senior Editor
Workpiece materials, spindle speeds,
shapes, and sizes all play a role
W
hen sizing up an application for a milling
toolholder, it is necessary to consider the materials
being machined, how aggressively metal is going
to be removed, and any machining conditions that
are likely to present a challenge to tooling security. By now, the
pros and cons of hydraulic, mechanical, and heat-assisted shrink-
fit systems are well known and results well documented. Tools
must perform under widely different machining conditions, but
the most common requirement is that tools are held with strong
gripping force to provide the best runout, the highest precision,
and least opportunity for quality-robbing vibration. Toolholding
solutions are available to guard against catastrophic failure due
to cutter pullout in machining the toughest materials or in high-
speed or high-production applications, often using standard
cutters wherever possible.

2. 70 AdvancedManufacturing.org | August 2015
Toolholder Change for Truck
Steering Component Is Big Winner
Changes from one toolholding system to
another can have significant impact on the cycle
times and productivity even in the highest volume
applications. In a high-volume machining environ-
ment like the automotive and trucking industries,
changing toolholders isn’t something that is done
without sufficient confidence that the change will
positively affect cycle time, production, and quality.
Such was the case at an automotive manu-
facturer based in the Midwest. Two specific
end-milling applications for a nodular iron sand-
cast component for a truck steering column were
evaluated to find a solution for too-frequent tool
changes due to excessive wear. The castings
which were somewhat difficult to hold were being
machined on Feeler vertical machining centers.
Using hydraulic toolholders, the inserts had to
be indexed after 400 cycles for a total of 800 parts. Annual
requirement is 1.4-million assemblies, each consisting of one
of these machined parts.
The customer’s manufacturing engineer was looking for a
solution to extend uptime on the application by testing other
grades of inserts. “I was brought in to look at a milling ap-
plication where tool life was very poor,” said Brett Kischnick,
application engineer, Horn USA Inc. (Franklin, TN). “I felt that
the Fahrion Centro P toolholding system could offer consider-
able improvement over the hydraulic toolholder that was being
used for the 1" [25.4-mm] indexable end mill with ¾" [19.05-
mm] shank,” said Kischnick. The switch to the Fahrion Centro
P toolholder using the same indexable inserts improved tool
life to 600 cycles for a total of 1200 parts. “At first I did not be-
lieve Mr. Kischnick when he said the Fahrion toolholders would
make a substantial increase in tool life but am certainly glad I
gave it a try,” said the manufacturing engineer.
The Fahrion toolholder system consists of a new toolholder,
a new collet, and a new nut. An adjustable torque wrench
is used to properly torque the collet nut down, tightening it
exactly the same way each time. “The holder and the nut have
a thicker cross section that allows the extra torque without
deforming the collet. In addition, the extra reinforcement of
the chuck body to the diameter of the clamping nut produces
superior stability with maximum compactness,” said Kischnick.
The Fahrion Centro P features clamping torque of the
clamping nut of 140 N•m with tool shank hardened, ground
ToolHolders
Auto supplier switched from a hydraulic toolholder to the Fahrion Centro P
toolholder from Horn USA for machining a nodular iron forging component
for a truck steering column. Using the same indexable inserts, the toolhold-
er improved tool life to 600 cycles for a total of 1200 parts from 400 cycles
and 800 parts.

3. August 2015 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 71
Rz
2.5, and free of grease. The holder offers 100% higher
clamping force than standard collet chucks, the toolholder
is ground to 1-µm taper in the front to taper in the back. The
collet is a maximum of 2 µm therefore the combined system
runout accuracy is less than 3 µm.
A high degree of concentricity and
repeatability of the Centro P toolholding
system is ensured by the 30° trapezoidal
thread with ground, extra-long, double-
length guide. “The ground thread and
guide ensure perfect centering of the
clamping nut on the chuck, achieving
even distribution of load and minimal
imbalance,” said Kischnick. “Clamping
forces are distributed evenly over the
gripped area of the cutting tool shank,
making the Centro P suitable for dry
processes and hard milling, and ideal for
drilling, counter-sinking, reaming, milling,
tapping, and high-performance, high-
speed cutting applications.”
Perfection Is Aero, Defense
Company’s Requirement
APN Inc. (Quebec, Canada) has
invested in the latest advanced digital
machining technology to enable it to
meet requirements for manufactur-
ing high-precision, difficult-to-machine
components for the aerospace, automo-
tive, defense, and optical industries, The
family-owned company has a commit-
ment to perfection which it “considers to
be non-negotiable” and has ISO-9001
and AS 9100-C certifications and a
DQCR certification from Pratt & Whitney.
In its digital machining arsenal, APN
numbers five Huron five-axis machin-
ing centers with a maximum speed
of 24,000 rpm and two three-axis
machining centers with 18,000-rpm
spindles. Turning is done with Naka-
mura multiaxis CNC lathes, and grind-
ing by CNC Combi-Tec CNC grind-
ers. For its milling performance, APN
management recognized the need for
better performance from its toolholding which was inconsis-
tent, particularly with regard to toolholder balance.
Milling performance has been dramatically improved by
switching to the powRgrip toolholding system from Rego-Fix
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4. August 2015 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 73
Tool Corp. (Indianapolis, IN). The switch from heat
shrink fit toolholding and standard ER collet hold-
ers was made to provide repeatability and balance
consistency required for high-speed machining.
APN is typically machining materials ranging from
stainless steels, tool steels, Inconel, and tita-
nium to copper, and plastic. Required machining
tolerances for most of the shop’s parts are typi-
cally 0.0005" (0.013 mm), with some as tight as
0.0002" (0.005 mm).
Once installed the powRgrip system has
delivered high concentricity (TIR) with deviations
of less than 3 μm for tool lengths up to 3×D and
length pre-adjustment with a repeat accuracy
within 10 μm. Holders are now 100% balanced to
G 2.5 at 22,000 rpm for steep taper-style holders
and G 2.5 at 25,000 rpm for HSK-style powRgrip
holders. APN’s high-speed, high-performance mill-
ing machines now run either Rego-Fix powRgrip
holders or ER collets. The company
has one powRgrip tool-changing unit
and more than 150 powRgrip holders
that make up about 60% of the shop’s
entire tooling. Some shrink-fit holders
are still in use to get the promised tool-
ing return on investment.
Workpieces are typically small with
three-quarters of them measuring
less than 3" (76 mm) square, and half
of those smaller than 1" (25.4-mm)
square. Tool sizes are typically under
1/4" (6.4 mm) in diameter with some
drills measuring as small as 0.015"
(0.4-mm) diameter. Job lot sizes vary
from five to a thousand with an average
of about 20. Half of these are regularly
scheduled jobs/orders, while the other
half are first-run jobs. At any given
time, APN can be processing as many
as 500 completely different jobs on its
shop floor at one time.
Locking Tools Securely
in Place by Holder Design
Companies like APN are benefiting
from the ability of the powRgrip tool-
ToolHolders
Nexteer manufacturing engineer Bryce Silvernail (left) and Horn USA’s Brett
Kischnick, application/sales engineer, with the Fahrion toolholding solution
that replaced hydraulic toolholders on VMCs machining a nodular iron
sand-cast component for a truck steering column, producing a dramatic
increase in tool life for indexable inserts.

5. 74 AdvancedManufacturing.org | August 2015
holding system to dampen vibration. This capability is critical
as machine tool spindle speeds and feed rates continue to
increase. It’s axiomatic: the better a toolholder controls or
even eliminates vibration, the tighter its TIR. The tighter a
holder’s TIR, the more it helps increase tool life as well as
improve part accuracies and surface finishes.
Rego-Fix’s powRgrip mechanical tool holding system and
its follow on secuRgrip system ensure concentricity (TIR) and
achieve high vibration dampening due to the functional contact
surfaces between its toolholders and collets, and the collets
and tool shanks. The powRgrip system absorbs vibrations by
creating “material breaks.” The process starts with a cutting
tool, typically made from anything from high-speed steel to car-
bide to cobalt, with each material having its own specific vibra-
tion frequency or harmonics. The cutting tool is held in a collet
that is also made from a particular type of steel then inserted
into a powRgrip toolholder made from a different type of steel.
Unlike systems that require modified tool shanks, the
secuRgrip system uses a special threaded insert or key that
eliminates the need to alter cutters. The simple and effective
design is part of the company’s well-established powRgrip
mechanical toolholding system and one that allows the use
of any off-the-shelf tool as long as it has a common standard
Weldon flat on its shank.
Rego-Fix’s powRgrip and secuRgrip are also faster than
other systems when it comes to exchanging tools. Remov-
ing a tool from a holder and installing another takes about
10 seconds. Heat-shrink holders, on the other hand, must
be heated, the cutter installed, then put in a chiller for 2 or 3
minutes before the tool can be used.
Mechanical-base tooling innovations such as Rego-Fix’s
powRgrip and secuRgrip provide shops with solutions for
their machining challenges, especially those involving tough
materials such as titanium and Inconel. With these toolhold-
ing systems, shops can increase cutting tool life, experience
significant cost advantages and run their cutting tools at the
highest speeds and feeds to increase productivity while also
improving part surface finish quality.
Existing powRgrip holders are easily transformed into
a secuRgrip holder by simply threading the outside of any
ToolHolders
A
fter several years of collaboration with two indus-
trial associates from the Allgäu region of Germany,
GROB engineers have found a solution for dealing
with chips during a tool change: the GROB motor spindle
with an intelligent spindle nose. With this GROB innova-
tion, after an automatic tool change, the tool interface
checks with ultra-precision for the presence of chips. Be-
cause this chip-in-spindle check is also cycle-time neutral
and no alterations are required in the machine‘s working
area, for many machining centers this development is an
excellent way for improving reliability during an automatic
tool change.
What happens is that sensors in the spindle nose
detect any asymmetric deformation caused by chips at the
tool fixing point and assess it. The information is transmit-
ted via high-frequency radio signals to the machine control,
which then flags up the faulty tool change. The energy for
the sensors in the spindle nose is supplied through one
stationary and one rotating induction coil. The combined
electronics and gaging technology affect only the design
of the spindle face. The reading is taken when the spindle
is at a standstill immediately after tool clamping. When the
reading is taking place, the feed axes move to the new
machining position. The accuracy of the system is impres-
sive. Chips are reliably detected, which at a distance of
150 mm from the face contact on the HSK A63 toolholder
can cause a change in concentricity at the tool of only 0.01
mm. It is immaterial whether the chips are in the tool taper
or in the face contact area.
For more information from GROB Systems Inc., go to
www.grobgroup.com, or phone 419-358-9015.
Intelligent Spindle Nose for an Ultra-Precise Tool Change
GROB motor spindle with an intelligent spindle nose detects
chips during tool change.

6. August 2015 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 77
powRgrip PG 25 or PG 32 holder for accepting the cap nut.
Rego-Fix can either supply the necessary thread specifica-
tions or factory-threaded holders. The secuRgrip holders
accommodate cutter diameters from 0.472" up to 1.000"
(12–25.4 mm). And with holder body tensile strengths
higher than those of the cutting tools being held, the
secuRgrip holders will withstand cutting
forces that could break the cutters before
ever damaging the toolholder itself.
Standard Tooling Works Well
with Milling Chuck Design
BIG Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc. (Hoff-
man Estates, IL) has made two recent
major product introductions: one aimed at
machining the toughest heat-resistant su-
peralloys with standard tools and the other
aimed at handling the smallest tools down
to 3-mm diameter with a hydraulic toolhold-
ing system.
“Up until recently, hydraulic chucks
for very small tools, specifically for tools
3 mm/1/8", diameter weren’t available,”
said Alan Miller, engineering manager. “The
reason came down to how hydraulic chucks work. There is
an interference fit between the bore of the hydraulic chuck
and the cutting tool itself. We have been able to redesign the
hydraulic system with a very tight tolerancing of the bore,
allowing us to clamp down to 3-mm diameter. The new small
hydraulic chuck is geared toward extremely high-speed
finishing work for the medical and mold-and-die industries,”
said Miller. “We can make them as small as HSK 32 for very
high speed micro-style machining at spindle speeds up to
45,000 rpm and get the surface footage necessary for very
fine surface finishing.”
To address the issue of tool pull out that can be encoun-
tered when machining heat-resistant superalloys (HRSA) like
titanium and Inconel, BIG Kaiser has introduced its Mega
Perfect Grip milling chuck. “One of the things that we’ve
done is take the existing standard holder for end mills and
used the Weldon flat to keep the tool from pulling out of the
holder. We came up with a modification of our existing mill-
ing chuck product line called the Mega Perfect Grip milling
chuck. We insert a key basically inside of the Weldon flat that
drops into a special location on the end-mill holders so that
when you drop it in and rotate it so that the flat locks into
an internal groove. Once you close the milling chuck, it isn’t
possible for the product to pull out,” said Miller.
The Mega Perfect Grip milling chucks combine the cut-
ting performance of heavy-duty milling chucks with security
against pullout of solid side lock toolholders. High-pressure
and high-volume jet-through coolant is a standard feature.
“We talk about Inconels and stainless steels, but alumi-
num generates a lot of axial force at high speed and tries
to pull the tool out of the holder. All of the tools for these
applications, for high-speed aluminum and heavy roughing
all require tool security. When people see the Mega Perfect
Grip milling chucks, the simplicity of the system is obvious to
them and it’s easy to implement,” said Miller. “Before these
developments in secure toolholding, the only way to hold the
tool was through side lock setscrew. But for today’s CAT 50
machines and the HSK A100 and A125 machines where you
need a lot of horsepower and high torque for bigger heavy-
duty aerospace applications, the Mega Perfect Grip milling
chucks offer the toolholding security and confidence that
manufacturers require,” said Miller.
ToolHolders
?
BIG Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc.
847-228-7660 / www.bigkaiser.com
Horn USA Inc.
615-771-4100 / www.hornusa.com
Rego-Fix Tool Corp.
317-870-5959 / www.rego-fix.com
BIG Kaiser’s new small hydraulic chuck can handle tools down to 3-mm diameter
for high-speed finishing work for the medical and mold and die industries.