Beat the Competition on a Budget with this Entry-Level ‘Automation’

In the most recent “Depth of Cut”, a monthly column written by BIG KAISER experts for Fabricating & Metalworking magazine, Unilock product manager, John Zaya suggests to the metalworking community that it’s time we start changing how we think about workholding. John explains that instead of just an impediment between cycles, we should think of modern workholding offerings as solutions that can help keep up with competitors, even those making aggressive moves towards automation.

“In fact, systems like this [zero-point clamping] provide the best solution to two of manufacturing’s toughest setup problems: repeatability of location from one fixture or workpiece blank to another, and transfer of work from one machine tool to another,” John said in the column.

By design, the Unilock clamping knob allows it to be used with virtually every chuck in the system, which provides a common interface to transfer workpieces around a shop from one operation to the next.

As other, more attention-grabbing, technologies have advanced to improve efficiency, so has workholding right alongside. Our line of zero-point workholding, Unilock, has been around for more than 20 years and has grown from eight receivers and six standard retention elements to 45 and 60 respectively. Many of these have been developed specifically for simple, speedy changeover without sacrificing strength and rigidity.

For specifics on how workholding can accelerate setup efficiency, even act as a worthy alternative to automation, read the full column, “Beat the Competition on a Budget with this Entry-Level ‘Automation,’” now.