Friday, August 28, 2009

Kennametal unveils shrink-fit toolholding system

As part of its complete tooling solution from the spindle face to the cutting edge, Kennametal has announced its shrink-fit toolholding system for machining centres and multi-tasking machines.

The shrink-fit system is split in two lines.

With the GP (general purpose) line, carbide, HSS and steel shanks can be accommodated with clamping torques suitable for most general engineering, die and mould, automotive and other machining tasks.

For heavy roughing operations requiring a higher clamping torque level, or for machining difficult-to-cut materials such as those found in the aerospace industry, the HT (high torque) line is recommended.

The HT line has a 30 per cent to 50 per cent higher clamping torque compared to the GP line.

The results are improved chip removal, faster performance and increased productivity for the end user.

For tolerancing hollow-shank (HSK) toolholders, taper is much tighter than that of any conventional 7/24 taper shanks.

For example, with a HSK63A, the taper tolerance is around several microns.

'Due to the trend toward higher cutting speeds, all the latest HSK shrink-fit toolholders have a balancing quality of G2.5 at 25,000rpm,' said product manager Oliver Moeller.

The Kennametal shrink-fit programme also accommodates steep taper, BT, CV and DV back ends.

According to Kennametal, the key features are: a very rigid and accurate connection to the tool holder; a shrinking and cooling process that will not last more than 30 seconds; very precise concentricity (3um); major process advantages in milling operations; slim profile for chucks for milling deep cavities; through-hole for coolant; and axial adjustment/backstop; and accommodates roughing, semi-finishing and finishing operations.

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