Ter Solid Shrink Collet gets a grip on shank-style cutting tools

Through the TER solid holder, tool life can be increased by up to 300 per cent with added precision available to the cutting process by maintaining runout at the tool tip within three microns TIR. By changing over to the TER shrink collet from a traditional collet system on a customer's 10-axis Index G 200 turning centre, rough machining time using a 10 mm shank tool was reduced from 75 to 30 sec and finish machining with a 6 mm shank tool reduced by 3 sec to 17 sec. Due to the higher rigidity of the tooling setup, cutter life was also improved from 500 to 1,500 parts on both rough and finish cycles. Developed and patented by the Bilz division of LMT, the TER Shrink Collet, now available through LMT UK of Meriden in Coventry, is a straight replacement (DIN 6499) for the traditional spring based collet used in a chuck and driven tool holder for direct clamping of tools by the shank in the machine tool spindle. TER can be used on tool shanks between 3 and 20 mm diameter and will be accepted by normal collet holders without the need for a sealing disc. The shank of the tool is secured in the TER holder by heat shrinking, a quick acting thermally based process normally taking under 30 sec to accomplish. This has the effect of creating a single unit of tool and holder to ensure maximum rigidity and stability between the machine spindle and cutting tool.