Premium chuck with 5μm accuracy

10 November 2021

With a new development in the hexagonal chuck series from Hainbuch, the German clamping device manufacturer is now taking precision to a new level. In 2006, the first Toplus chuck with hexagonal clamping geometry entered the market and just one year later, the Toplus IQ with integrated measuring technology followed. A few years later and the impressive product line was expanded with the mini version that offers a smaller interference contour and lower weight. Now, Hainbuch presents its latest development with the highest precision available. The new Toplus Premium Chuck is now available and it introduces a host of additional advantages.

High precision without alignment
The Hainbuch portfolio of chucks has always been very precise and once the chucks are aligned, the runout is near to zero for repeat clamping. If the various chuck heads are then changed, the runout is usually between 3 to 7μm without alignment. With the new Toplus premium chuck, Hainbuch guarantees a runout of ≤5μm without alignment, regardless of which clamping head is used.

Until now, this was only possible with an expensive hydraulic expansion or a diaphragm chuck. These systems have limitations entailed by their design. In many cases, a runout of ≤10μm is perfectly sufficient. However, components or machining processes that demand a runout of ≤5μm are increasingly commonplace within the industry. By utilising the new Toplus Premium Chuck with the associated premium clamping heads and by clamping against the workpiece stop, this level of accuracy is always achieved. This means that manufacturers no longer have to lose time making alignments for small batch sizes. This simplifies set-ups and allows manufacturers to be highly flexible as the new Toplus Premium Chuck is just as accurate as a chuck that is aligned for series production.

Easier automatic loading
To reduce set-up times, improve machine utilisation and reduce costs, a robot is often used to load the workpieces in the machine. This can become a problem if the clamping stroke is too small. With the Toplus Premium Chuck combined with a clamping head, the stroke is increased to make loading easier, even if the robot works somewhat imprecisely. In addition, the Toplus Premium Chuck is very robust and not as sensitive as some other clamping devices. A slight contact with the workpiece during loading has no impact upon the chuck and its ability to perform at the highest levels of precision.

The Toplus Premium Chuck is also sealed against contamination and vibration. With the Toplus Premium Chuck, both thin-walled and solid parts can be clamped securely with no loss of centrifugal forces. This makes the new addition to the Toplus series extremely secure for machining all types of components. Furthermore, like all chucks in the Hainbuch system, the exciting new Toplus Premium Chuck enables end users to change from external to internal workholding or even jaw clamping with changeover times taking just a couple of minutes.