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Workholding for turning is usually fairly basic: The selection comes down to chucks or collets. This article looks at when to consider the collet chuck and what kind might be best for a given application.
Article From: 3/24/2010 Production Machining, Tom Sheridan, V.P. Marketing from Royal Products
These cutaways show the internal differences between pullback collet (left) and dead-length collet designs.
This quick-change collet system uses a special handling tool to compress the rear of the end of the collet so it can be inserted into the chuck body. Upon expansion, the collet locks into place using a hook and groove arrangement.
A conventional spring-type collet (left) requires a bore that is precisely sized to the workpiece diameter; otherwise, contact is reduced along with grip force. On these quick change collets, the segments remain parallel to the workpiece.
A number of accessories are available for collet chucks, including adjustable stops for precise workpiece locating and spring-loaded ejectors for secondary spindle part removal.
When considering the purchase of a CNC lathe or turning center, it is important to ensure that the workholding system is matched to both the machines capabilities and the type of work that it will
be doing. For example, the workholding system for a large-bore oil-patch lathe that will be machining pipe threads is probably not going to be the right solution for a high-speed multitasking machine making hip joints. Many CNC lathes and turning centers come equipped from the factory with a standard workholding system consisting of a three-jaw power chuck, a hydraulic actuating cylinder and a drawtube. The hydraulic cylinder is fixed to the rear end of the machines spindle, while the chuck is mounted to the front side, or working side, of the spindle. These two components are typically connected together via the hollow steel drawtube that passes through the spindle bore. The opening and closing of the chuck jaws is accomplished through the axial motion of the hydraulic actuators piston. As the piston slides back and forth, the drawtube moves in unison, driving a wedge-shaped plunger within the chuck body. This plunger converts axial motion to radial motion, causing the jaws to open and close. The amount of gripping force that the jaws apply to a workpiece is directly related to the actuator output force and is easily regulated with a pressure valve. As a universal workholding device, a three-jaw chuck functions well for many common turning applications. It can hold a range of part sizes, is capable of operating at reasonable rotational speeds and achieves good accuraciesparticularly when the jaws are bored in place. However, there are many applications where a jaw chuck is not the best workholding option, which has led to the development of a range of alternative solutions. The most common among these is the CNC collet chuck. A CNC collet chuck mounts to the working side of a CNC lathe spindle in the same manner as a three-jaw chuck and uses the machines existing hydraulic cylinder and drawtube for actuation. The installation of a collet chuck usually requires the fitment of an intermediate adapter between the chuck and drawtube to compensate for thread and position disparities. This adapter is custom machined for the specific lathe/chuck combination and is normally included in the price of the collet chuck.
rigidity and better surface finishes. In contrast, the large diameter of a three-jaw chuck and its jaws typically requires the part being machined to extend further into the work zone, thereby increasing the likelihood of deflection.
Higher RPM
Collet chucks also lend themselves to small diameter work because their lower mass and symmetrical geometries enable them to run at higher speeds than conventional three-jaw chucks. Being comparatively lighter in weight, collet chucks are less prone to the negative effects of centrifugal force and, therefore, tend to produce more consistent gripping force over the entire rpm range.
Bar Feeding
Collet chucks are the preferred workholding method for most bar feeding applications. Aside from the previously outlined advantages related to small diameter turning, some additional benefits of using a collet chuck when bar feeding include reduced vibration and faster clamp/unclamp times. The 360-degree contact between the collet and workpiece again comes into play in bar feeding applications by ensuring that the barstock remains on centerline for concentric re-gripping after being advanced by the feeder.
Additional Advantages
Some additional advantages to using collet chucks include faster setup times and/or higher accuracies because there is no need to bore soft jaws in place; availability of standard collets for gripping round, square and hex-shaped stock; internal expanding collets for gripping on workpiece internal diameters; and bores as small as inch can be accommodated. Holding oddshaped parts and performing off-center turning are among some of the more specialized applications that can be easily handled with custom collets.
collet is fixed to the chuck body, and a tapered sleeve pushes forward over the collet to compress it. Because there is no axial movement of the collet with this design, workpiece positioning remains constant. As machine tools become more sophisticated with features such as live tooling, multiple spindles, multiple turrets and in-process gaging, there has been a shift in the market away from pullback-style chucks in favor of the more advanced dead-length model of collet chuck for both main and subspindle operations.
with limited Z-axis capacity. The short length also improves rigidity by keeping the workpiece closer to the machines spindle bearings.