Shrink-fit demos on tour

To request an on-site visit by the demonstration vehicle that also contains a selection of LMT Group's 30,000 tooling items, customers are asked to call the LMT customer help desk on 024 7636 9770. "Users of up to 32 mm dia shank style milling cutters are now realising that shrink-fit tool holding is not expensive to adopt and service and this semi-permanent system is not just the realm of high speed machining centres," says LMT UK's managing director, Trevor Tolley. He maintains the technology eliminates problems normally associated with collets, such as damage, tool slippage, wear, and tools dropping out of the spindle under cutting conditions. The LMT ThermoGrip system will assemble tool and holder to within an accuracy of 0.003 mm TIR, ensuring even loading and wear on the teeth of the cutter. "For every 10 microns of tool runout, the effective life of the cutter could be reduced by 10 per cent," he said, "noise under cut also increases and the resulting surface finish is degraded." Within the demonstration vehicle the shrink-fit equipment ranges from LMT's 'value' package using internal air cooling to the fully automated ISG-3200 WK ThermoGrip unit. The ISG unit takes less than 10 secs to locally heat the toolholder ready for the cutter to be inserted followed by rapid quenching in a total cycle that can be completed in less than 30 secs.