What blows me away in the CNC machining business is the creativity applied to solving problems. And not just how to hold a workpiece, but how to do so for the highest possible precision. I know, I know. What's the point of holding something if you aren't going to do it with precision? Ya, I wonder that too. You'd be surprised how many companies accept relatively imprecise workholding solutions, and how many companies try to GET AWAY with imprecise solutions. That's why I get so excited when I find a company that holds precision above all else. Ones that get "high" on the precision - I mean, the greater the precision required, the more they like it. I know a job shop that likes that so much, and is so good at it, that they will turn down jobs that don't require high precision. More about that on another post though.
What really got me going today is this application by
Advanced Machine and Engineering Co (AME): they have a customer that needed a workholding fixture that could precisely hold product that had already been manufactured, to measure the accuracy of the machining. So the precision was doubly important. The problem is the particular part in question is small and oddly shaped, and had some very small ID measurement that were required.
AME put their team on this one, and came up with an approach that uses parts from a completely different product line and applied them to the workholding. They have tons of holding options available, but their engineering geniuses realized they couldn't get the level of precision and solid holding they needed, with perfect placement repeatability. Check out this
Inspection Fixture for Measuring Highly Detailed Parts.
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