Creative fixturing for reducing number of setups on high volume horizontal parts?

Anyone have any ideas, tips, tricks or accessories that they would like to share?

I've been doing a lot of horizontal programming for parts that we are trying to reduce cycle time and consolidate operations for parts that are increasing in volume and currently run on VMC's or on tombstones but require 1 or 2 refixturing steps to hit all sides of the part.

Some of them justify the investment in high-zoot tooling/fixturing. I'm open to everything from KME rotary indexers that mount on tombstones to automatic hydraulic/pneumatic clamping that is activated by M-codes, to (my dream) something simpler than a KME that would easily/quickly either index a part 90 degrees or flip it over and re-clamp. I know I could use a robot for that sort of thing, but looking for something that can live on a tombstone dedicated for that part.

Lots of creative minds here... what say you?

SRT Mike said:

Anyone have any ideas, tips, tricks or accessories that they would like to share?

I've been doing a lot of horizontal programming for parts that we are trying to reduce cycle time and consolidate operations for parts that are increasing in volume and currently run on VMC's or on tombstones but require 1 or 2 refixturing steps to hit all sides of the part.

Some of them justify the investment in high-zoot tooling/fixturing. I'm open to everything from KME rotary indexers that mount on tombstones to automatic hydraulic/pneumatic clamping that is activated by M-codes, to (my dream) something simpler than a KME that would easily/quickly either index a part 90 degrees or flip it over and re-clamp. I know I could use a robot for that sort of thing, but looking for something that can live on a tombstone dedicated for that part.

Lots of creative minds here... what say you?

Click to expand...

I been looking at better fixture ideas for a while now for verticals and now a horizontal coming in a few weeks, the stuff from PAWS looks pretty damn nice for long running jobs.

How big are your parts?

The zero-point plate shown here is for a rotary 4th, but another version has extra dowel holes for 90 degree indexing of the entire vise with a part clamped. +/- 0.0002" repeatability.



$950 for the entire setup, including the vise, per station. You can fit 12 stations on a 400mm tombstone.

Orange Vise said:

How big are your parts?

The zero-point plate shown here is for a rotary 4th, but another version has extra dowel holes for 90 degree indexing of the entire vise with a part clamped.

$950 for the entire setup, including the vise, per station. You can fit 12 stations on a 400mm tombstone.

Click to expand...

Whoa! I meant to message you and ask about adding an extra set of dowel holes after seeing you post that on instagram. Apparently you're already on top of it!

I might pick one of those up along with an angle plate of some kind to get me by til I get a rotary. I'm looking at the cost of a 4th for my mill, which is a significant chunk towards a 5th axis trunnion, which is a down payment towards a dedicated 5 axis machine, and I have two older mills I'd love to replace with a 5 axis instead of just overbooking my newer machine that would be able to take the 5th trunnion....so any way to reduce setups and still save some money for the new machine fund sounds great!

Orange Vise said:

How big are your parts?

The zero-point plate shown here is for a rotary 4th, but another version has extra dowel holes for 90 degree indexing of the entire vise with a part clamped. +/- 0.0002" repeatability.

$950 for the entire setup, including the vise, per station. You can fit 12 stations on a 400mm tombstone.

Click to expand...

It's contract work for various customers, so part size varies. But we're chasing (and getting) mostly work that's smaller... like maybe 4 loafs of bread stacked into a cube shape would be the largest size of part we're really interested in taking on.

We already have Lang/Jergens/5thAxis ball-lock plates on almost all the fixtures, but the downside is it requires an operator to change out/index the pallet for each different fixture/setup. The new machines coming have 8 pallet changers, and the goal is to have 1 tombstone = 1 job. Currently that requires often flipping a part or rotating it 90 degrees to access features on the top/bottom/back. That works OK, but there are also high volume jobs where it would be even nicer to hit cycle start and go from raw stock* to finished part in one press of cycle start.


*I say raw stock but it's not exactly raw... blanks are delivered cut to size -0.00 +.050. Usually one face of the tombstone will run a dovetail operation in a vise that holds the part for subsequent operations. But with features on 5 sides, that takes up 3 tombstone faces just to get the dovetailing, plus at least one re-fixturing setup to hit the other 3 sides, sometimes two re-fixturing setups. If there were other options for moving the part (i.e. pneumatic/hydraulic clamping that can rotate the part and re-clamp or flipping the part automatically or electro-mechanical indexing), that would let us perhaps dedicate a machine to dovetailing blanks and then get them off the machine in one cycle as finished units with each press of cycle start. We have a couple programmable robot arms now to achieve this but they are time consuming to program and are separate from the tombstone. It would be nice to have a tombstone that just takes dovetailed blanks and produces finished parts.

Maybe what I am looking for doesn't exist. We also have some 5-axis machines with pallet changers but are looking to maximize productivity of the horizontals and not tie up the 5-axis stuff with simple indexing/flipping.

We have a Yuasa Super Rapidex that might kinda be useful to you. At the very least, probably cheaper than the indexer route you mentioned.

Basically a mechanical indexer, that turns when you push a button with the spindle. Here's a link to one, you can see more models/sizes in their full catalog: YUASA 710-230 - yuasa-intl

If you get one that can mount on its back, and put a dovetail vise of your liking in the middle of it, it will allow you to do 5 sides of a block with no extra handling. Disclaimer, turning isn't super fast, you can only push the button to index at about 200ipm, and they have different models with different index amounts per stroke. Ours can index every 5 degrees, with a full stroke of about 2" getting 15 degrees. So it takes about 6-8 seconds to index a full 90 degrees with the model we have.

You could get a few, mount them to a couple sides of the tombstone, and basically have 5 axis positional on your 4 axis machine, with no cables to worry about twisting.

The one I have is an 8" one, and is very very rigid. Currently running some "impeller blade" looking parts (not actual impellers, just kinda similar) that are 9" diameter 416ss, and I'm hogging pretty well with high speed toolpaths, and there are no rigidity issues to speak of.

I am in no way affiliated with yuasa lol. Just thought maybe it might work for ya. But if you could get some slick wired indexer setup on your tombstone, that'd be neat too.

Orange Vise said:

How big are your parts?

The zero-point plate shown here is for a rotary 4th, but another version has extra dowel holes for 90 degree indexing of the entire vise with a part clamped. +/- 0.0002" repeatability.

$950 for the entire setup, including the vise, per station. You can fit 12 stations on a 400mm tombstone.

Click to expand...

Just a bump to this thread - I don't see this product listed on your website (or maybe I am looking in the wrong place).

I have been looking at setups for my own shop.. I have a 4th axis rotary a Speedio and have been looking at Jergens/Lang plates. I'm interested in this setup too - just wondering where it's listed?

SRT Mike said:

Just a bump to this thread - I don't see this product listed on your website (or maybe I am looking in the wrong place).

I have been looking at setups for my own shop.. I have a 4th axis rotary a Speedio and have been looking at Jergens/Lang plates. I'm interested in this setup too - just wondering where it's listed?

Click to expand...

You can find them under the "Fixturing" or the "4/5-axis Vises" tabs.

Work in progress, so a lot more stuff will be added regularly.

Orange Vise said:

You can find them under the "Fixturing" or the "4/5-axis Vises" tabs.

Work in progress, so a lot more stuff will be added regularly.

Click to expand...

Cool thanks for that as I looked and couldnt find them as well.
Also I owe you an email I keep forgetting been very busy.

I have been shopping Horizontals lately and this Okuma vid has something I had never seen before. @40 seconds
Would take up one side of the tombstone but with the right part would be pretty cool
Gary

YouTube

Cycle1000 said:

I have been shopping Horizontals lately and this Okuma vid has something I had never seen before. @40 seconds
Would take up one side of the tombstone but with the right part would be pretty cool
Gary

YouTube

Click to expand...

Anyone know the supplier of that device? I know KME makes them - just wondering if there's anyone else? And has anyone used one? How do they connect to the machine, or do they (maybe wireless/battery powered)? Are they M-code activated or something simpler, like a switch you hit with the spindle to index it?

And the big question - cost? The issue with the KME stuff is it's priced the same as "real" 4th axis from one of the big name brands - hard to justify that cost for something that has so much more limited use cases.

SRT Mike said:

Anyone know the supplier of that device? I know KME makes them - just wondering if there's anyone else? And has anyone used one? How do they connect to the machine, or do they (maybe wireless/battery powered)? Are they M-code activated or something simpler, like a switch you hit with the spindle to index it?

Click to expand...

Pretty sure that was mechanically unlocked with the spindle and then indexed with circular interpolation.

Their website is pretty terrible, and not updated with that thing.

Miyakawa